A Glass Rose
by Rin22
Summary: Post Las Vegas. Jordan finds out that the path to happiness isn't the one she always thought it would be. WJ shippers bewarned, it's a JordanDanny focus. Rating just to be safe
1. I Want To Care

**I'm still a Woody/Jordan fan, I want to establish that right now. However…given recent events, I want Jordan to do better than thecrap Woody's throwing at her. Hence, my story, set a few months in the future and only slightly sticking with the plotlines that we have been made cognizant of. Also, I don't really watch _Las Vegas_, so I'm probably changing their plotlines to suit my fancy!**

**Disclaimer: I disclaim… there, are you happy, you copyright crazies?**

* * *

**I Want To Care**

Sunny and warm in December.

It made her wonder why she had ever moved to a place like Boston. Why she had fled the comfort of the Los Angeles climate. Why she had never considered moving to a city that offered that same temperate weather that caused one to live in a perpetual time warp, not knowing the real difference between summer and winter. Seasons didn't change; and when seasons don't change, it becomes possible to pretend that the world isn't really turning, that time isn't passing. Ignoring the warps in her life would be as natural as the stubbornly perfect weather. Why hadn't she picked a city like this? Why not this city? Why not Las Vegas?

Jordan squinted up at the Montecito Hotel, her sunglasses doing very little to block the sun that was bouncing off the glass of the building. She clutched a rolling suitcase in one hand, her purse in the other. She took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh.

"_An ME always reserves the right to change her mind."_

At the time, her words had been said as a consolation of sorts. He probably had not really believed her. She had only half believed herself. It was all his idea: his invitation. He knew what he was getting into, she was sure of that. She could have said no. In the back of her mind, she knew the only reason she had accepted was to try to find some sort of connection that was not going to mean anything in the end. And he was too good for that. She couldn't bring herself to use him for her own pathetic need for, what was it she had said? _"Cheap, meaningless sex?"_ Yes, that was it.

So she had high tailed it out of there and found what she was looking for elsewhere. And, on some levels, it helped. On some levels. On many others, she was still working away from the worst heartbreak she had ever felt from a man she loved. And the worst part was that he knew. He knew that she really did love him; he just chose to let those emotions bleed out of her while he made no secret of the fast and furious romances he sought out, the most recent being with his psychiatrist. The polar opposite of Jordan.

After a while, she no longer cared. She still loved him, but she could not bring herself to care for him. It made as little sense to her as it did to the friends that she confided in. She wanted to care, but she couldn't. He treated her like something less than human. His words about his recovery still burned her ears. No one had ever said anything that nasty to her before. _"I'm cleansing myself, you know, getting all the _toxins_ out of my system."_ The look he gave her as he emphasized the word "toxins" hardly gave her any reason to wonder if he meant her. How could she care for anyone who continued to treat her that way?

And then one night, as she lay in bed next to a man she had hooked up with for the third time, she realized that she wanted to care…for somebody, anybody. The meaningless sex had been enough for a while. But it left her feeling hollow.

Cue the red eye flight to Las Vegas. There was something about Danny McCoy that intrigued her, and kept her wondering 'what would have happened if…?' How had he gotten her to do something so spontaneous as to fly out to Vegas two and a half months ago? No one had ever been able to tug her strings like that before. It left her off balance. It was a nice feeling.

As she wandered into the parking garage of the hotel, Jordan wondered what Garret would do when he listened to his voicemail and received her call telling him that she was taking a few vacation days. He'd probably think she had mixed her pills with alcohol. Oh, life was complicated. She had never been very good at explaining her way of thinking to anyone else, why start now?

It didn't take long for Jordan to find Danny's BMW parked in his staff space. She steadied her suitcase on the ground, and then hopped onto the trunk of the car to sit and wait. She let her mind go blank, or as blank as possible, until she heard the elevator door open twenty feet away and the person she had been waiting for emerged. She felt her stomach turn a little, nervous about how he would react to her being here. Halfway to the car, he finally caught sight of the fact that she was sitting on the BMW, her long legs crossed casually. He stopped, looking shocked but happy.

"Jordan Cavanaugh, what on earth are you doing here?" Danny asked with an incredulous smile. She smiled back at him, shrugging coyly.

"I changed my mind."

* * *

**Short, I know, but I'm still feeling this idea out. Feedback? Comments? Criticisms (so long as they are constructive and not harsh about who I am pairing)?**


	2. Potential

**Yay, I'm glad you guys are willing to play this game for a while! Thanks for the encouraging reviews of the first chapter!**

**Potential**

Danny stared at her, his mouth quirked into a smile that was half disbelief and half temptation. Jordan found herself reacting with what she was sure was a look that came pretty close to seduction. She couldn't really even remember the last time she had tried to draw a man in this way. His attempt to discreetly look her up and down set her mind at ease that he was more than happy to see her.

"You changed your mind?" he asked with a raise of his eyebrows. "Just like that? What happened to 'Too Spontaneous For Me' girl?"

"Ah, but this wasn't really all that spontaneous," Jordan said, tilting her head to the side as he made his way over to her.

"No?" he asked, casually shoving his hands into his pockets.

"No," she replied, her smile growing as he stopped in front of her. "No, this has been a long time coming, I think."

He gave her a roguish grin that made her remember just how he had convinced her to fly out here the last time. He took a hand out of his pocket and tapped his knuckles against her knee. "Somehow I think there's more to it than that, Cavanaugh. Not that I'm not pleased to find you adorning my car."

"Ohhh, it's a long story," she said, trying to make light of something that was anything but. He gave her a look that told her he wasn't buying. She rolled her eyes a little before curving her lips into a smile that always got her what she wanted. "You could at least buy a girl dinner first before asking how she ended up flying across the country when she swore she wouldn't."

Danny laughed and shook his head, thinking that this woman was truly one in a million. He took hold of her hand and pulled her off the car and into his arms, giving her a tight hug. Jordan smiled as she wrapped her arms around him and rested her cheek against his chest. She had really missed him. She felt so damned comfortable with him, and at the same time so deliciously uncertain of what the next moment would bring. It made him a constant fascination.

"I'm glad you came back," he said, rubbing his hand against her back.

"Me too," Jordan agreed.

"Now maybe I'll get a look at what's on the third pajama set," he said with a huge grin, and Jordan playfully pushed him away with a laugh and a girlish shake of her head. He reached out and grabbed her hand again, tugging her back to him to place a hand on the small of her back. "C'mon, I'll take you to dinner."

* * *

Danny McCoy sure knew how to show a girl a good time in Vegas. He drove them to an upscale club that had live music and a menu written mostly in French. Jordan noticed that he drove just fast enough and casually enough to impress her, but not so fast that it made her nervous. She had always taken a man's driving into account, believing that it showed a lot about personality. When they arrived at the club, the sun was just setting over the desert city, mixing with the bright lights of the casinos as Las Vegas came alive.

The club resided on the top floor of the high rise, with one wall providing a breathtaking panorama of the city. Not surprisingly, the host knew Danny and led them straight to one of the best tables in the already crowded room. Danny kept his hand at the base of her back as they walked through the room, pulling her chair out for her when they reached the table. Jordan wasn't used to the formalities, but found herself enjoying them immensely. Being unfamiliar with the menu, he ordered for her and she was treated to the most exquisite meal she had ever tasted in her life. The man certainly had good taste. They kicked around casual conversation for most of the meal, but eventually Danny brought it back to the question he had asked her in the parking lot.

"You must think I don't want you here, and believe me that's _very_ far from the truth, but…why are you here, Jordan?" he asked, his eyes boring into her. Jordan sighed and took a sip of her wine before answering.

"I just needed to get away. I worked my way through the meaningless relationships, and one day I reached a point where I wanted more than that. I wanted to see if…this…had the potential that I felt two months ago," she told him honestly. He listened carefully, his expression unchanging during her confession. A thought suddenly occurred to Jordan, and she raised her eyebrows with a laugh as she said, "And I didn't even bother to find out if you're even available or not. I mean, it is you, I don't really see you being single for very long."

"Jordan," he said, stopping her rambling. "I brought you here spur of the moment on a Saturday night…does it sound like I'm seeing anyone?"

"So you're not?" she asked with renewed interest.

"No…not anymore." At a look from her, he went on. "I was until about two weeks ago. She got a job offer in Florida, and basically told me that she didn't think she could handle a long distance relationship. Translation: she knew she would find somebody else."

"And you would have been willing to give long distance a shot?"

"If it's worth it, then yeah," he said, looking her straight in the eyes.

"That bodes pretty well for me," Jordan said, her voice quieting.

"It does indeed," he said with a hint of a smile. He considered her for a moment, fingering his wine glass. "So what happened between you and Woody?" he asked suddenly.

Jordan gave a short, bitter laugh. "The better question is what _didn't_ happen between me and Woody."

"All right, what _didn't_ happen between you?" Danny asked as he raised the glass of wine to his lips for a drink.

"Sex, pretty much."

Jordan was lucky she didn't end up with Merlot sprayed over her. Danny did his best to swallow the wine, pulling his napkin over his mouth and coughing. Jordan winced.

"Sorry," she said.

"S'ok," Danny coughed with a wave of his hand. "I forgot that you like to play the blunt game."

"Yeah, but I should learn to pick my moments," she told him with a sympathetic look.

"Yeah, maybe," he teased her. After he had recovered, he looked at her with some uncertainty. "So you two never…?"

"Nope. Not even close. I don't know," she said, reaching up absently to brush her hair away from her face. "It was always such a huge deal between us, and I never really knew what I wanted, and by the time I realized it, it was too late. My biggest fear was that I would lose him as a friend, and voila, prophecy fulfilled."

It felt strange telling Danny all of this, considering the reason she had returned to Las Vegas in the first place. She hadn't really intended to reveal so much to him. The last time they had seen each other, she told him all she thought he would need to know so that he would understand why she was only looking for a fling. Emotions had never come into play, though. This was the first time he had heard her talk about what the toxic relationship had done to her.

"So…he's not your favorite person right now, then," Danny ventured. Jordan pursed her lips and shook her head. "Good. I can tell you this now. Sam's pissed at him."

Jordan's mouth turned up into a wicked smirk, and he grinned at her expression.

"Yeah, apparently she hasn't heard a word from him since he left Vegas. She's a little furious," he told her.

"Tell her to get used to it."

Danny looked at Jordan with admiration and…something else. It took a strong woman to survive that kind of an end to that kind of a relationship. He really was glad she had returned to Vegas. This had the potential to be a very good situation.


	3. Crazy Sexy Beautiful World

**Oooooh, I'm being a good little authoress and updating quickly…aintcha proud? **

**Remember to review…you know you want to!**

**BTW: did anyone else notice during "Luck Be A Lady" that during the "classroom" scene when Woody asked Jordan whose side she was on, Danny got in the line "Mine!" right before Jordan started talking? I definitely just noticed that as I was watching the ep. again and thought it was hysterical.**

**Crazy Sexy Beautiful World**

Despite the tremendous wait to get into the club, Danny made sure that they took their time and enjoyed a leisurely dinner. He was enjoying Jordan's company way too much to be rushed away from their table. The only thing he could think as he stared across the table at her was that he didn't want her to leave. She was interesting and spirited, smart, beautiful…everything he looked for in a girlfriend. He had found women who met his standards before, but there was something different about Jordan. The more he saw her, the more he wanted to be with her. He didn't like the idea of her going back to Boston…at least, not without him.

People might not expect it of him, but Danny liked to be attached to someone. There was a certain amount of comfort that it brought. As the evening wore on, he only felt more convinced that he was about to play right into Jordan's plans. If she thought that strongly that she could find a relationship with him, who was he to argue?

After nearly two hours, Jordan noticed that some of the people waiting for a table were starting to glare at them. She suggested that maybe they better leave before they ran the risk of being accosted in the parking lot. Danny took her hand to help her out of her seat.

"We don't really have to leave just yet, though," he said, slipping his arm around her waist.

"Whatever do you mean?" Jordan asked jokingly.

"You, me…live band. Bluesy rock music," he said, bringing his mouth down next to her ear. "Enjoy the nightlife a little."

Jordan's skin tingled as his warm breath landed against her jaw line. She actually felt nervous allowing him to pull her out onto the dance floor, her heart speeding up as she realized just how incredibly sexy he was. The sultry lighting in the club didn't hurt, either. Danny wrapped a strong arm around her waist, instinctively drawing her close against his body. Jordan dropped her head onto his shoulder, her face turned in towards the curve of his neck. She closed her eyes and drank in his presence. And for the briefest of moments she thought of how many times she'd shared this with Woody…and she didn't miss it.

Her heartbeat slowed comfortably as she relaxed against Danny, and she smiled proudly to herself at the thought that she had succeeded…she had moved on. She was considering a relationship with another man. A caring, thoughtful, loving man who wanted _her_. Not some ideal. _Her_. As if she needed any more proof of her attraction to him, her nerve endings sprang to life as Danny's hand trailed dangerously low down her back. She smiled, biting her lip.

"McCoy, are you trying to seduce me?" she quipped.

"That was the general idea, yeah," he said, chuckling. The sound reverberated through her body. Danny glanced down at her. "Did you know that dancing is considered equivalent to foreplay?"

Jordan bit back a juvenile giggle. Sometimes, she absolutely loved his sense of humor.

"If you think this is getting you off the hook later, you're wrong," she replied.

"Damn it," he swore in mock seriousness before smiling down at her. His dark eyes searched hers. "So you're staying the night this time?"

Jordan gave him the same smile she had when he proposed she take the next plane to Vegas, and backed slowly out of his arms.

"Why don't you find out," she said, raising a suggestive eyebrow. Danny stared after her with an obvious look of want, amused at her teasing. Oh yes, this evening was going to turn out just fine.

* * *

Jordan kept frustratingly out of his reach until they reached the door to his high rise apartment. He had had just about enough of that game. When she stepped aside to let him open the door, he simply looked over at her. A few seconds passed before Jordan realized that he was staring at her. She looked up at him with an expression that said 'What are you waiting for?'

She had just enough time to see him glance down at her mouth before his lips found hers, and her world reeled. Two months had done very little to fade the memory of his kiss, and she was not disappointed. Danny backed her up against the door, holding her to him with one arm while the other hand cradled the back of her head, tangling in her dark curls. Jordan moaned softly as his lips toyed with hers, his tongue darting into her mouth and dueling with hers. She slid her hands up his arms and around his neck, pleased beyond belief at the sculpted muscles she felt beneath his work clothes. She felt his body reacting to hers and pressed against him. Danny groaned.

"God, Jordan," he breathed. "We should take this inside."

"Hey, you started it," she smiled, bringing her lips to the skin just below his ear. He tightened his grip on her at her contact.

"Yeah, unfortunately I have a neighbor who wouldn't be so pleased at us getting down to business out in the hall," he said with a hint of disappointment.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the key, unlocking the door and holding it open for Jordan. She reluctantly detached herself from him and walked into his apartment. What she saw made her eyes widen. She had no idea that he lived in such a gorgeous place. It was definitely a bachelor flat, worthy more of Manhattan than Las Vegas.

"Man, I've gotta get a job at a casino," she deadpanned as she heard the door click shut behind her. She felt his hand come to rest on her waist.

"Sounds good to me," Danny whispered in her ear, pressing a kiss against her cheek.

Jordan swallowed at the realization of what he meant. It struck her for the first time that he was serious about this. About them. She had hoped that he would be, at the very least, open to the idea of a relationship. She hadn't quite expected him to fall right into place in her crazy plan.

"You want a drink?" he asked her.

"Um, yeah," she stammered, shaking her head a little to clear her mind.

Danny disappeared into the kitchen, leaving her to look around. She glanced over the living room before walking towards what she assumed was the bedroom. Her jaw dropped a little at the view. Two walls of solid glass. Not bad. She walked over to the windows and stared out into the night sky, practically deprived of stars from the glow of the city.

"Hey, where'd you go?" he called from the other room.

"Back here!" she answered, her eyes never leaving the view.

She turned around when she heard him walk into the room. His coat and tie had vanished, leaving him in his slacks and a white button down shirt.

"Nice view," she commented, barely hiding the double entendre in her voice. He shrugged modestly and handed her a glass of champagne.

"Wasn't really my pick, but who could turn down a place like this?" he said.

"Who indeed," she said almost to herself, taking a sip of the still bubbling drink. She wandered past him and started looking at his CD collection. "Do you mind?" she asked.

"No, play whatever you want," he told her with a smile as he sat down on the edge of the bed.

Truthfully, he just wanted her back in his arms, but he was willing to let her stall for a few minutes. Fortunately, Jordan Cavanaugh was more full of surprises than he would have thought. A few moments browsing, and Jordan found what she was looking for. She put her champagne glass down and popped the Maroon 5 CD into the player. Turning to face Danny with a smile of pure certainty, she hit play and the opening strands of "Secret" escaped from the speakers.

Danny felt his mouth go dry. She was definitely more than he had bargained for. Jordan practically sauntered over to him and stared down into his eyes, taking hold of the collar of his shirt and slowly beginning to unbutton it. He reached up to cup her face as he brought her mouth down to his, losing themselves in each other. Jordan reached his belt line and had to tug the rest of his shirt from beneath his pants to finish what she had started, easily sliding the shirt over his strong shoulders. Once free of the shirt, Danny brought his hands to the hem of her blouse, expertly slipping his fingers underneath the fabric and pulling upwards, sending her hair into a cascade of curls as the shirt went over her head. Returning his hands to her bare skin, causing her to shiver in delight, he slid them up and brushed against her breasts with his thumbs before wrapping his arms around her and pulling her down onto the bed with him. He rolled them over so that she lay beneath him, her arms thrown lazily above her head. Looking down at her, he found pure contentment on her face.

"God, you're beautiful," he murmured, tracing the frame of her face with his fingers. She smiled shyly at his compliment. He almost didn't want to ask his next question, but he had to, for his own conscience. "Are you sure about this?"

"Positive," she said without the slightest hesitation, the look in her eyes reaffirming the sureness in her voice.

Danny paused for only a moment to drink in the willing look on her face before claiming her lips again, letting the music finally lead them to a world they had both wanted to get to for what had seemed like an eternity. There were three little words missing when Jordan called out his name and dug her fingers into his back…but Danny guessed that he would have plenty of time to work on that. And for the first time in weeks, Jordan no longer felt hollow as she drifted into sleep, curled against his side.


	4. I Might Say Yes

**Man, I am just updating like crazy here! I must be brilliant on this story…or avoiding my homework…potato potahto**

**...your horoscope says you will review my story today...amazing!**

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**I Might Say Yes**

Sunday dawned bright and warm, with the extreme light typical of winter time being the only indication that it was even December. No work and no calls meant the chance to continue through dream land for a few extra hours. When the phone rang shrilly on the nightstand, it jarred both Danny and Jordan. She rubbed at her tired eyes while he reluctantly rolled away from her to pick the phone off the cradle to answer it. Jordan could hear a man's sharp voice on the other line.

"Uh huh," Danny said groggily. "Yeah, she's right here."

Jordan closed her eyes and groaned inwardly. She rolled onto her stomach and buried herself beneath the covers. She felt Danny tap her on the shoulder with the phone.

"It's Garret, Jordan," he said, amused at her attempts to hide. "He wants a word with you."

"Tell 'im I don't wanna," she grumbled into the pillow. She heard Garret's muted voice come through the phone again. He sounded pissed.

"He says he can hear you, so you might as well get your ass in gear," Danny informed her, grinning as she emerged unhappily from the covers. He was pleased to see that she looked just as beautiful first thing in the morning as she did going to bed. As she took the phone away from him, he ran a hand along the line of her neck, brushing away strands of her hair.

"Garret, what's up?" she asked with false courage.

"You turned your cell phone off, Jordan. Do you know how long I've been trying to find out how to get in touch with you?" Garret's voice hit her harshly, making her grimace a little.

"My guess is since yesterday," she replied unhelpfully, rolling her eyes at Danny to garner sympathy for being lectured. He chose that moment to start kissing his way up her arm, starting at the tips of her fingers. Jordan had to bite her lip as Garret yelled at her.

"Don't be smart, Jordan. You could have at least told us where you were staying so that we wouldn't have to be worried sick the last twenty four hours about where you were and what you were doing," Garret said, sounding an awful lot like her father.

She smiled at the unintentional double meaning in his words, looking down at Danny who was now trailing his lips across her shoulder. How was she going to explain this? There were no possible words that would make Garret happy.

"I told you I was going to Vegas," she argued.

"What for?" Garret demanded, though he must know perfectly well what for if he had finally managed to locate Danny McCoy's home phone number and found her there at nine on a Sunday morning.

"To figure my life out," she said. He didn't say anything. "Look, I swear, I just need a few days, Garret. Really. I need this."

Garret sighed heavily. "Just a few days, Jordan. Then I want you back in Boston where you belong," he paused, thinking over what she had done. "Be careful. Don't make any choices you'll regret later."

"I won't," she said tightly. It annoyed her that he thought so little of her decision making that he thought this was another fling.

She sank down into the pillows and handed the phone back to Danny, who put it back in its cradle. He turned back to her with an impish grin and moved over so that he was propped above her. He reached out with his left hand and entwined his fingers with her right hand. Jordan couldn't help but smile back up at his ridiculously happy face.

"So a few days, huh?" he asked her.

"Yup."

"You certainly had high expectations," he joked, and she laughed lightly. He searched her eyes for a moment, a question at the tip of his tongue. Finally, he asked quietly, "You sure you wouldn't want to extend that a little?"

Jordan felt her heart leap. "Do you want me to?"

"I want you to stay as long as possible," he told her. "What does the Boston morgue need you for in the end, really?"

She smiled at his words, feeling herself blush. "It's more the fact that I get my paycheck from them that's the dilemma," she said.

"So? I can find someone here to give you a paycheck for the same thing," Danny persuaded her shamelessly. He let go of her hand to cup the side of her face, rubbing his thumb against her cheek. "I don't want you to go, Jordan."

To emphasize his point, he lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her deeply. Jordan felt her body respond to him, and she reveled in what he was able to make her feel. She had feared that she would never be able to let herself feel this way again, but Danny turned those fears into nothing. Jordan pretended to be torn about her decision; but as he made love to her, she knew in the back of her mind what she would decide in the end.

* * *

A few days ended up turning into a few weeks. Ed Devine pulled some strings and got Jordan a temporary position as an ME, and by the time Christmas rolled around there was already a strong rumor that the position would become permanent. Jordan found herself enjoying Las Vegas much more than she ever thought she would. It helped that most things that she did meant having Danny McCoy at her side. She was quickly falling in love with him, and knew that he was falling hard for her. And it wasn't very long before those words that Danny longed to hear as he made love to her escaped her lips right along with his name.

The staff at the Montecito was thrilled, if not a little shocked, with the pairing. They knew that Danny would be the last person to rush into anything too serious too soon, but it was plain that Danny and Jordan just fit. End of story. And any of them would have been pleased to hear them announce an engagement sometime in the near future. The only person who seemed bitter at all was Sam. It clearly bothered her that Jordan came back to Danny, while Woody continued to be evasive. Jordan was thankful not for the first time that it was no longer her who was suffering from Woody's scorn.

She felt guilty more often than she liked about running off to Vegas the way she did, especially with the holidays approaching. She never intended to hurt her friends, but it was inevitable that they would feel upset about her sudden departure. She talked to them daily, never missing the opportunity to speak to each of them at least once. The last thing that she wanted was for them to think she had abandoned them or forgotten them. Lily was the easiest to talk to, as she managed to turn Jordan into a gossipy teenager about her relationship with Danny. She was truly happy for them. Bug just wanted to make sure she was doing all right, Sidney joked around with her about becoming the next Britney Spears in Vegas, and Nigel told her that if Danny did anything to mess with her that he would be forced to revisit his combat training.

Garret was the hardest to talk to. He wanted her to be happy, and he was genuinely glad she could find that happiness in Danny. But it was clear that he missed her. Jordan worried about him. There was a light that had dimmed somewhere in him, she was sure. It had happened even before she left Boston, but she was afraid that she was only contributing to his sadness. Lily insisted that she was keeping her eye on Garret and assured Jordan that she would be the first to know should anything change dramatically with him. She had no choice but to accept this as it was, however concerned she was.

No one mentioned Woody…and she was just fine with that.

It was on Christmas Eve that Jordan told Danny she felt that she needed to visit Boston to check in on everybody; mainly, to check in on Garret. She emphasized the word 'visit.' Not 'return,' but 'visit.' They were sitting in the living room enjoying the glow of the Christmas tree, the fire in the fireplace, and the Frank Sinatra Christmas Album. Danny had made them hot chocolate with the perfect amount of Bailey's Irish Cream. He loved making that drink for her; it made her just relaxed enough and slightly buzzed to bring out her outgoing side without making her drunk.

"When would you leave?" he asked her, playing with her hair with his free hand.

"I was thinking after New Year's," she said. Danny nodded.

"Okay. I'll make plane reservations in the morning," he said. She looked at him, surprised.

"Wait, you're going too?" she asked.

"Yeah, is that all right?" he laughed at her. She smiled and shook her head in surprise, somewhat taken aback.

"Of course. I just…ah, I guess I didn't think you would do something like that," Jordan said, knowing she made absolutely no sense.

"Do something like what?" he asked, getting more amused at her by the second.

"Follow me across the country," she said, reaching out with her foot to nudge his leg playfully. "Kinda stalker-ish, actually."

"Well, you know me. One phone call and I hop on a plane," he said, giving her a knowing smile. _Really, Jordan, I would do anything for you_, he thought, feeling too foolish to say it out loud. He stared at her for a minute, and then put his cup down and jumped up from the sofa. "Okay, I can't wait any longer," he said eagerly as he kneeled down next to the tree. "This was going to be for tomorrow, but you're getting it now."

Jordan sat up expectantly as Danny retrieved a small box from beneath the tree and brought it over to her. Her heart raced for a second before she realized the box was probably too large to be what she thought it might be. Then again…

"And before you panic, no, it's not a ring. I would give you a little more warning than that," he dispelled her worries. "Unless of course you wanted it to be a ring, in which case I will sit here quietly while you berate me."

Jordan laughed and leaned over to kiss him.

"I'm sure whatever it is will be just perfect," she told him.

She pulled the silver ribbon off the package and lifted the lid from the box. Her hand snuck in beneath the tissue paper and closed on what felt like glass. She lifted the object out. In her hand was the most beautiful blown glass rose she had ever seen. It was a lone, full blossom framed by a single leaf. A rich butter yellow had been woven into the glass of the petals, accented by the Kelly green of the leaf. Jordan was speechless.

"Do you like it?" Danny asked eagerly, looking at her with the face of someone who knows they've done something right.

"Danny, this is…I can't even find the words," she said. "It's exquisite."

Danny wrapped an arm around her waist and rested his forehead against the side of her head.

"It reminded me of you," he murmured, brushing his lips against her hair.

Jordan almost wished that it had been a ring in that box, because she would have married him right then and there. She felt guilty thinking that this was the most beautiful present a man had ever given her. There was one present that had come close…but it was all wrong in so many ways. What Danny had given her was just right. More importantly, it was right for them. Jordan turned her head and kissed him lovingly.

"Merry Christmas, Danny," she whispered against his lips.

"Merry Christmas, Jor."

* * *

Of course. Of course _he_ would be the first person she would run into upon her return to Boston. She hadn't even been there six hours. She hadn't even been to the morgue yet. All she did was walk down the street to the Starbuck's on the corner for some coffee, and walking in the opposite direction was the living proof that to love and lose is not necessarily better than to never love at all.

Jordan took a deep breath and braced herself for what she was sure would not be a pleasant reunion. He had definitely seen her, she was sure of that. She stood taller as he approached her…and walked right past her without so much as a glance. Slightly stunned, Jordan turned and watched him walk away. Her lip twitched, deprived of the words that she had been prepared to say to him, her jaw open a little.

"Oh," she muttered vehemently.


	5. Guilt On The Side, Please

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**Guilt On The Side, Please**

Jordan had learned from experience that when one's life goes in the right direction for too long, something is bound to go wrong to balance out the universe. She would have been fooling herself to think that going to Las Vegas wouldn't change anything back in Boston. She just didn't expect things to change quite so much. Or rather, she never thought that the people would change so much.

She felt like she was dead to Woody. Apparently, despite the fact that he was the first one to start having other relationships, Jordan turning to Danny was unforgivable. Woody's attitude was really starting to suck. He was being such a hypocrite, in her own opinion. After all, he had been dating that blonde psychiatrist pretty steadily. Maybe it was the mere fact that it was Danny, of all people. The two men had butted heads from the moment they met.

Jordan debated telling Danny of the encounter, or lack thereof. Of course, being the intuitive person that he was, Danny sensed that something was wrong from the moment she walked in the door. He prodded her until she wound up telling him what happened.

"He just walked right by you?" he asked, his brow drawn down in concern. "Not even a hello?"

"Nope," she said, shrugging her shoulders. "I thought we were passed this, you know? I don't expect him to be my best friend, but…I just figured that we could at least be civil to each other."

"Jordan, the guy is being a complete asshole to you," Danny said, his defensive side surfacing. "Just let him ruin his own karma. It'll get back to him eventually."

"I think it already has," she said. Danny gave her a confused look. "You…he never liked you much to begin with, it must be killing him that I'm with you."

"Really?" he said, a mischievous gleam in his eyes.

"Yes, really," Jordan smiled as he moved closer to her.

"Well, I think, given what he put you through, that he deserves a nice public viewing of what he lost," he said, wrapping his arms around her waist and drawing her closer. Jordan bit her lip, doubting the wiseness of that idea.

"You're asking for trouble if you do that…you know that, don't you?" she warned him.

"Tell him to bring it, for all I care. I've got you, and I'm not letting you go," Danny said seriously, kissing her softly. When Jordan kept her mouth on his, he felt the control of his body slipping from his mind and transferring to other areas. Jordan smiled as she felt his hands slide under her blouse and reach for the hook on her bra.

"Danny, I have a meeting with Garret," she argued, though she was quickly starting to lose control herself.

"Mhmm," Danny muttered, not really caring about that at the moment. She rolled her eyes, amused.

"I have to leave in, like, five minutes," she tried again, honestly starting to regret that it was the truth.

"That's okay, I only need, like, two," he teased her.

"Oh thanks a lot," she laughed, giving him one last lingering kiss before regretfully backing out of his arms. The look that he had been giving her lately when she had to leave him was starting to make her breath catch in her throat. He looked as though he couldn't bear to let her out of his sight. Like she might not come back. She wanted to wrap her arms around him and tell him that he would never have to worry about that…ever.

* * *

Walking into the morgue after over a month of being in Vegas felt like coming home, even more so than returning to her apartment. It was rather late in the day, so Jordan did not see the familiar faces of her friends, as they had probably gone home for the day. Thinking that she would most likely see them tomorrow, she wandered over to Garret's office. His door was open, and she opened her mouth to call out a greeting when she saw something that made her stop in the doorframe. Garret had not seen her approach, and she managed to catch him resealing the cap on an alcohol bottle before placing it back in the bottom drawer. Jordan blinked in uncertainty and watched him raise the coffee mug to his lips for a drink.

"What's the matter, didn't the rest of the staff think it was a good idea to just add it to the whole pot of coffee?" she asked flippantly. To her surprise, Garret spun around in his chair calmly and regarded her critically. Had he known she was watching him?

"The last thing I need right now is one more person babysitting me, so I'll thank you to leave your opinions outside," he said gruffly, though she could tell he wasn't really mad. Jordan walked over to his desk and propped herself on the edge of it.

"Just looking out for you," she said.

"It's no stronger than what I usually have at the end of the day," Garret argued. "You've been known to join me from time to time, too, in case you've forgotten."

"Your usual is usually in a glass with ice," Jordan stared him down. "Not hidden in a mug with coffee."

Garret returned her stare in silence. She grew uncomfortable under his gaze, feeling out of place in the office for the first time. It hadn't occurred to her that her return would be so incredibly awkward. Apparently, her decision had been received less kindly than she had thought.

"So how long are you here for?" Garret asked finally.

"Uh, I'm not sure," Jordan replied, sliding off the desk and standing instead, her arms crossed over her chest. "I don't really know what's happening right now…with me living here and Danny being in Vegas. A week, maybe two. I really don't know."

"So you two are pretty serious, then?" he inquired casually. Jordan bit her lip, thinking for a moment before answering.

"We don't want to rush into anything," she said. "We certainly don't have any plans for serious changes any time soon…like moving. I gotta tell you, though, there are major benefits to practically living in a casino," she joked.

"Don't tell me you have a gambling addiction," Garret said. Jordan smiled in relief, glad to have finally broken through his shell.

"No, not quite yet," she said. "More like an addiction to room service and free tickets to shows."

"Anything good?"

"This musical from Broadway is there for a while. _Avenue Q_. It's done with puppets, like Sesame Street, but definitely for adults," she explained, then stopped at the look on his face.

"Puppets?" he raised an eyebrow at her. She shook her head a little.

"You have to see it, I guess," she said with a smile.

"Sounds like you're having a good time," Garret said, looking for the first time as though he were happy for her.

"I am," she said. After a few moments silence, she asked, "How are you doing?"

"Fine," he said firmly. Jordan raised her eyebrows a little.

"Really," she said doubtfully.

"Really," he repeated with a pointed look, standing up and walking over to grab a day planner off of a shelf. "So I assume you're going to want to work while you're here."

"Uh, only if it's convenient," she said slowly, her mind still focused on his abrupt insistence at being fine.

"Sure, why wouldn't it be?" he asked absently, flipping open the day planner to write something down. Jordan stared at him for a moment.

"Garret, are you sure you're okay?" she asked once more.

"I'm fine, Jordan, stop worrying," he told her.

"Okay," she said defensively. "Forget I asked."

Tossing the day planner onto the desk, he let out a small, frustrated sigh. Jordan was starting to feel guilty for having left Boston in the first place. And a small part of her hated that he was making her feel guilty. This was the first time in a long time that she was content with her personal life, and it hurt that she couldn't ask for that contentment to coincide with her work life. She loved Danny, and she knew that the relationship would cause her to sacrifice a lot of her life in Boston. She didn't expect people to resent her for it, though.

"Garret…" she started.

"Can we not do this now, Jordan? I just really don't feel like it," Garret cut her off. When she looked at him, hurt, he walked over and placed his hands on her arms. "It's good to have you back. Don't think I'm not happy that you're here. I just…I don't want to be put under the microscope tonight. Okay?"

"Sure, Garret," she conceded quietly. He saw right through her, knowing that she wasn't letting this go easily.

Jordan thought hard about the meeting as she drove home. Mostly, she thought about how close of a bond she and Garret used to share. There had been no hints that the relationship was slipping away during the time she was in Vegas, or that anything was truly wrong. Nothing had really even happened tonight to prove those things, either. She just had a feeling that this was going to be a lot more difficult than she had planned. Guilt still twinged in her heart, especially when she thought of what Garret had told her after she had saved those boys from the mine shaft, saying that he didn't know what he would do if anything happened to her.

Where was the line between risking her life, potentially causing them a huge amount of grief, and walking away from them of her own free will for a life with the man she loved? Losing Woody completely, while shocking, was at least understandable. But could she do that to the people who still loved her?


	6. What A Lovely Way To Burn

**Oh school, how I loathe thee and thy propensity for delaying my updates…**

**Reviews are encouraged, welcomed, appreciated, and all other synonyms that imply positive reception.**

**What A Lovely Way To Burn**

Two days later, Jordan was back in her old office trying to plow her way through the paperwork that had managed to find its way onto her desk. The task was growing increasingly difficult, especially when Danny stopped by at lunchtime to bring her coffee and a chicken salad. She had certainly been eating better since starting to date him. When her forty five minutes was more than up, she still wasn't quite ready for him to leave her at the mind numbing work. So she made no argument when he walked behind her chair and began to knead the tensed muscles in her shoulders and neck, dropping light kisses on her skin from time to time. After several minutes, the paperwork was forgotten, and Jordan closed her eyes and melted under Danny's hands.

She let her mind wander, not really thinking about anything specific, but just allowing her mind to visit things that had been bothering her. There was definitely a different mood in the morgue these days. Not necessarily bad; just different. Garret acted like he had lost his authority there. He was still being watched carefully, and the constant monitoring showed in the way he ran the place. Everyone else seemed somewhat less enthusiastic because of it, though no less dedicated to the work they were doing. They were more than glad to have her back. It seemed to give them an extra push in the cases. And, despite Danny's eagerness to flaunt their relationship, the morgue had been Woody-free since her return. For that, Jordan was grateful

A knock at the door brought Jordan back to reality, and she immediately missed Danny's touch when he stepped back to allow her to answer the door. Lily stood on the other side with a slightly apologetic look on her face.

"Hey, Lily, what's up?" Jordan asked.

"Garret wants you to take an autopsy in two," she explained, handing Jordan a file. "Pretty routine, traffic fatality."

"Doesn't trust me with the big stuff yet, huh?" Jordan joked.

"Oh, no," Lily smiled. "I think he just doesn't want you to get too…tied up. You know, in case you need to leave…or something," she finished mildly with a glance at Danny.

"Ah," Jordan said, giving Lily an understanding smile. "Yeah, I've been getting that impression." Turning to Danny, she said, "Mind if I go take care of this?"

"Not at all," Danny said, walking over to join them. "Actually, I should probably be getting back to the apartment. I have to check in with Ed in an hour." He leaned down and kissed Jordan goodbye. "See you tonight. Bye, Lily."

Jordan watched him walk away, and Lily followed her gaze.

"My God, is it me, or did he get hotter since the last time he was here?" Lily asked, admiring the vantage point she had. Jordan elbowed her jokingly in the side.

"Hey, I went to a lot of effort to nab him, I don't need any competition here," she said sarcastically.

"Jordan, I hate to break it to you, but with a boyfriend like that, you better get used to outsiders admiring the view," Lily smiled. She looked at her friend and was surprised to see a slightly unnerved look on her face. "What?"

"I just haven't heard anyone refer to him as my boyfriend before. It sounded…new," Jordan said, trying as hard as possible not to sound freaked out by Lily's label. Lily still gave her a concerned look.

"You guys are serious though, right? I mean, surely people in Vegas consider him your boyfriend," she prodded.

"Yeah," Jordan said quickly, smiling to cover up her discomfort at being questioned. "But it sounds different coming from one of you guys, ya know?"

"Oh," Lily said, though she didn't quite understand.

"Anyway, I better get on that autopsy before Garret decides to kick my ass in gear for me," Jordan said lightly, heading off towards the locker rooms to change into a pair of scrubs.

When she was in the seclusion of the changing area, she stopped to think about what had just happened. It made no sense. Not even two weeks ago she was ready for Danny to get down on one knee and ask her to be his wife, and it had not scared her in the slightest. She wanted it, more than she ever thought she would. But there was something about Lily and the rest of her morgue family pointing out the seriousness of her relationship that made her pulse quicken. She was starting to feel slightly pressured by it, like they were analyzing every move that was made. And presiding over this thought was the fear of how they would react if she did decide to let the relationship move into the area of an engagement…a marriage. Because that would change everything.

Lifting her eyes to the ceiling, she shook her head a little before heading over to do her autopsy. The work managed to relax her, the meticulousness of it distracting her enough so that she didn't have to worry about her life. Everything she found was in line with a typical traffic fatality. The twenty-five year old man had swerved off the road and collided with a cement wall at top speed. Crushed ribs, a broken neck, internal bleeding…nothing out of the ordinary. Jordan thought that she might just get off easy on this report, until she ran the tests for any unusual substances.

"Well that's just fun," she muttered as she stared at the tox screen.

"What's fun?" Sidney shoved his way through the double doors with a pile of papers in his arms, catching her statement.

"This traffic vic has a rather high amount of iron in his system," Jordan told him.

"Overdose?" he asked, curious.

"I don't know," she said, moving over to let him look at the screen. "What person takes an overdose of iron and then gets in the car to drive somewhere?"

"Maybe he didn't know he was being overdosed," Sidney suggested darkly. Jordan looked over at him.

"You suspect foul play?" she asked mysteriously with a raise of her eyebrow.

"Of course."

"What would this job be without a little cynicism," she said sarcastically.

"Not very entertaining," he answered her, walking with her over to the body. "Did he have an ID?"

"Yeah," she said, picking up the wallet that was in his personal affects. "Phillip Di Giovanni."

"They have Italians in Boston? I thought it was strictly Irish," Sidney quipped, and got a semi-amused look from Jordan. She stared down at the ID for a few more moments, her brow furrowing.

"He's local," she said as she read the information, and then handed the wallet over to Sidney. "See if you can locate any relatives that we can contact. They might have some answers for us."

"I'm on it," Sidney said, leaving her to take a second look at the body.

An hour later, Phillip Di Giovanni's parents were located and informed about their son. Jordan examined his stomach more closely and found what she needed to back up the high doses of iron in his system. The internal bleeding from the accident had hidden the corrosion of his stomach lining from her in her initial exam. Now that she knew what to look for, it was easy to see that his stomach and intestines had been almost destroyed by the amount of iron forced into his body. She grimaced, thinking that this young man had gone through excruciating pain before he died.

With Lily's help, Jordan talked with Vince and Gina Di Giovanni about anything in their son's life that would have caused him to overdose, or to imply that someone would do this to him. From their emotional reaction, she guessed that they had no suspicions of either scenario. Jordan felt horrible for even suggesting it at the look on Gina's face when she thought her son might have killed himself…or been killed. Phillip had always been an outstanding human being…not without his faults and problems, but always a solid person. He had just graduated from NYU with a double major in journalism and psychology and was interning at a paper in Boston. All things considered, leading the idea life.

And if Jordan knew anything about life, it was when it seemed ideal that things started to crash and burn.

Her stomach growled at her as she stood at a computer in trace, looking over samples taken from Phillip's body. She should have left work an hour ago, but she wanted to find something to jump start this investigation, forgoing an offer of take-out from Lily and Sidney. The police had been alerted to what was going on, and a search of Phillip's apartment was underway. Jordan knew that eventually a detective would be assigned to the case…she cringed at the thought of how that would turn out. Her best bet was to get as much of her side of the work done as soon as possible to avoid any unnecessary confrontations. When her phone rang, she momentarily abandoned her research and answered it.

"Hey, you almost done?" Danny's voice came through the speaker, making her smile.

"I want to be," she said, looking guiltily at the mass of work she had created in trace.

"I want you to be, too," he said, his voice leaning on the husky side. Funny how just his voice could make her skin tingle. "If you're not back soon, I might just have to share this four star meal I whipped up with some other sexy brunette," he teased her.

"Don't you dare," she grinned, her body starting to feel some very un-professional sensations. Without fail, Danny cooking her a luxurious dinner led to a night of him paying more attention to her body than she ever thought a man could. With one more glance at the papers and evidence lying around the room, she decided that she wouldn't really find anything of importance tonight anyway. "I'll be home in twenty minutes."

* * *

Even in her dreams, Jordan felt his hands sliding over her, his lips touching every inch of skin on her body, making her more aware of herself than ever before. In these moments, she never doubted how her future with him would turn out. She loved him too much to consider letting him go. If he could drop everything to come to Boston with her, not even knowing how long they would stay, she should be able to do the same for him. But she still worried about what it would do to everyone if she left…what it would do to Garret. Being in Danny's embrace made her forget about that, if only for a little while. It gave her the chance to imagine the promise of a life with him. Those images followed her dutifully into her dreams, replacing the haunted thoughts that had been collecting there since the sniper shootings.

Her phone seemed to shriek in the dark, making her eyes fly open in alarm. She felt Danny sit up next to her, his arm still slung across her waist. Blinking to focus her eyes, Jordan reached over for the receiver while he switched a light on.

"H'lo?" she said into the phone, her voice thick with sleep.

"Jordan," Lily's voice echoed in her ear, shaky and tearful. "Garret was in a car accident."


	7. Wash Away The Pain

**Wash Away The Pain**

Jordan felt her stomach turn at Lily's words. The worst possible scenarios leapt into her mind, making her heart race in fear. She sat bolt upright and pulled the sheets around her tightly.

"Is he okay?" she said, panic evident in her voice. Danny heard the tone and slid over so that he was framing her body, resting his hands on her arms and providing much needed support.

"He's fine; I mean, he got pretty banged up in the wreck, but he's not…he's not in any serious danger," Lily stammered, her voice catching.

Jordan let out a relieved breath and leaned back against Danny, running a hand across her forehead. She was incredibly thankful that he was there.

"Is he in the hospital?" she asked, already planning to drive to where ever it was Garret was at the moment.

"Yeah, he is. I just got here," Lily said. She hesitated for a second. "Jordan, there's something you need to know before you come."

"What?" she asked, truly worried about what Lily knew. Lily was silent again, obviously afraid of what she was forced to tell Jordan.

"The accident…it was his fault," she said sadly. When Jordan didn't say anything, she went on. "He was…over his legal limit. By quite a bit."

In those ten seconds, Jordan felt her heart shatter. She swallowed hard and worked against the angry tears that stung her eyes. If Danny hadn't been there, she didn't know what she would have done. Possibly fallen to pieces right there on her bedroom floor and been unable to pick herself up again.

"Jordan?" Lily said, concerned at the silence on the other end of the phone.

"I'll…I'll be there as soon as I can," Jordan said quietly.

Before she had a chance to move, Danny reached up and took the phone out of her hand and hung it up for her. He then wrapped his arms tightly around her and just held her. He had heard enough of Lily's end of the conversation through the phone. Garret meant the world to Jordan, and he didn't even need to guess at how she was feeling. Cradling her head in one hand, he kept her pressed close to him.

"I can't believe…" Jordan couldn't finish the sentence. "How could he?"

"He would never consciously hurt you, Jordan," Danny said softly in her ear. Jordan's mouth turned down as she tried to control her emotions, shaking her head against his chest.

"I feel like I don't know him anymore," she said over the lump in her throat. "When did he get this way? Was it because I left-?"

"Hey hey hey," Danny cut her off. "This is not your fault. You can't control what other people decide for themselves."

"I knew something was going on with him, we all knew it. I should have done something," Jordan sighed tiredly, guiltily. Danny was silent for a moment, just stroking her hair with his hand.

"When my dad died," he started quietly. "I kept looking for a reason to blame myself. I just about drove myself crazy trying to pinpoint the exact moment where I could have done something different...anything that would have changed things. It took me forever to realize that some things are just out of your hands."

Jordan closed her eyes and leaned into him. For the life of her, she couldn't understand why a man who was so sane and rational was with _her_. She ran her fingers gently along his arm which was encircling her waist.

"I know," she said. "I just…"

"I know," Danny whispered understandingly. She managed to smile a little.

"Why are you amazing to me?" she asked him.

"Because I love you," he said, kissing the side of her head. "Get dressed. I'll take you to the hospital."

* * *

Jordan knew she was angry at Garret for what he had done. She just didn't realize how much until she walked into the ER and was led to the curtained off gurney where Garret was lying with his leg in a cast, his left wrist wrapped in a bandage, and several cuts on his face and arms. Lily was sitting in a chair beside the bed, but she quickly excused herself when Jordan approached. From the look on his face when she walked towards him, Jordan had a feeling he knew she was angry. Her eyes narrowed critically and she shook her head in disbelief.

"How 'bout you spare me the condescending lecture and just pour salt on my cuts instead," he muttered before she could say a word.

"Garret, what the hell were you thinking?" she demanded, ignoring his words.

"I was thinking that I was tired of trying to be a saint for every damn person in the world," he snapped. Jordan swallowed hard, her temper rising and her emotions coursing through her.

"And tearing around Boston in your car piss drunk is the answer?" she nearly yelled at him.

"You know, you're not really the one to be giving this speech," he said defensively.

"Yes, I do stupid things," Jordan replied curtly. "To save people's lives. Not because I get tired of acting like something I don't want to be. No one was asking you to be a saint."

"Could've fooled me."

"Don't you dare do that to me," she said evenly. "All I ever asked you for was the truth. Not perfection. Not a single person in that morgue expected you to be that way."

"Good, 'cause the truth is I never was," Garret said cynically. "But I guess you all already knew that."

Jordan rolled her eyes to the ceiling in frustration. She should have believed Lily sooner when the grief counselor told them she thought Garret was in trouble. She should have pushed harder for Lily to keep a closer eye on him while she was in Vegas. She should have…but she hadn't.

"So what now?" she asked him somewhat sarcastically. "You have a court date yet?"

Garret looked away from her, his face solid as stone. It made the comment stick in her throat as she realized that he did indeed need to appear in court. There was an awkward moment while she waited for him to tell her.

"They're suggesting that I agree to counseling and possibly a stint in 'rehab' to show the court that I'm willing to cooperate," he said disdainfully. "It will make the other driver less likely to sue."

Jordan's mouth dropped open.

"The other driver?" she asked incredulously. He didn't say anything, merely keeping his gaze averted from hers. Jordan let out a sharp breath, close to tears. "Garret…why?"

His face softened ever so slightly, giving her a glimpse of the pain he was feeling. Her question was loaded, full of emotion. It was a question he could not answer. Not in any way that she would understand. Jordan let her shoulders sag, and she sat gently on the edge of the bed, placing a hand as softly as she could on his good arm.

"You're okay, though," she said, half questioningly. He finally looked at her and shrugged a little. Looking him in the eyes, she repeated the words he had said to her when she had been trapped in the mine. "I don't know what I would have done if anything had happened to you."

Breaking through the last bit of the egos they had thrown up, Garret reached out and pulled her into a hug. The tears that had been brimming in her eyes finally spilled over, and she reached up to wipe them away. She hated herself for not being there for him over the last few weeks. She knew Danny was right, that she couldn't control other people's actions. But it did nothing to ease her guilt about the situation.

"I need you to do something for me," Garret said, a pleading tone in his voice that sounded completely unnatural to Jordan. "I need you to take over as Chief ME while I'm gone."

The words nearly made her sob. They sounded so permanent…as though they were foreshadowing the day when Garret would eventually leave the morgue for good.

"Anything you want," she promised him.

* * *

Sleep was practically a joke for Jordan when she and Danny returned home. As soon as he was deep in slumber, Jordan slipped out of bed and spent the rest of the night staring out of the window in her living room, watching the light change into dawn. Clouds had moved over the city during the night, and it felt like snow was inevitable that day. Quietly as she could, Jordan dressed and left to go to the morgue. She knew Danny would understand why she had gone there.

The morgue was close to deserted. Mechanically, she walked through the lobby and made her way to Garret's office. She opened the door and walked slowly over to his desk, stopping to stare at the bottom drawer. Her stomach tightened, and she felt fresh tears in her eyes. Kneeling down, she pulled the drawer open and lifted the half empty bottle out. She straightened and just looked at the amber liquid, her brow drawn in pain and concern. A wave of hatred washed over her, and Jordan heaved the bottle at the baseboard of the wall, a sound that was part scream and part sob escaping from her mouth. The glass shattered with a resounding crash, spilling the liquid over the floor. Jordan covered her face with her hands, sinking down into Garret's chair and letting the tears fall.


	8. A Zephyr This Ain't

**It is a cloudy and wet day in SoCal…please brighten my day with some reviews, critical or otherwise! Enjoy the latest chapter! Ciao**

**A Zephyr This Ain't**

If one more traumatic thing happened in Jordan's life, she didn't think she would be able to handle it. The week turned into one of the most horrendous she had ever experienced. Emotions ran ramped in the morgue and traveled out into the police force and the DA's office. Fighting her own emotional involvement in Garret's behavior was growing impossible when she had to explain her takeover as Chief ME to questioning authorities. Someone up the ladder had come close to bringing Slokum back in, but was met with a general uproar, and not just from the morgue staff.

On the second day of being Chief ME, Jordan came home stressed and close to a nervous breakdown. She had jokingly told Danny that if he wanted out, now was the time, before she totally lost it. He had taken her face in his hands and stared in her eyes. She didn't even need him to ask.

"No, I don't want you to go," she choked out as the breakdown that had been threatening her started to surface. "I'm sorry, I'm just sounding off. The truth is, I'd probably just crawl into bed and never leave if you decided you wanted out."

"Jor, I'm here for as long as you'll put up with me. You know that, don't you?" he had asked her.

"Of course I do," she had told him, moving into his arms and holding on for dear life. "But the Montecito's going to want you back at some point, or you might realize just how screwed up I really am and decide that this is not even worth it-"

"Hey, uh-uh, don't say that," Danny had said, placing his fingers under her chin and forcing her to look up at him. "I told you at the beginning that if I thought it was worth it I would go for the long distance thing. And you're more than worth it."

After searching her eyes to make sure she believed every word that he said, Danny had leaned down and kissed her deeply. She responded hungrily, the rawness of her emotions releasing the full extent of the passion she felt with him. They barely made it to the bed that night. Trying so hard to let go of everything but him, Jordan's vision nearly went white when pleasure wracked her body, her ears ringing with the sound of his voice. Danny laced his fingers firmly with hers, knowing she needed to be grounded to something to fight against her world crashing down around her.

It surprised them both when tears appeared in Jordan's eyes, and she gripped his hands tighter. She looked up into his eyes, trying to convey that it was nothing he had done. Ever so softly, Danny kissed away the shining tears from her cheeks, though he felt his own emotions following in her footsteps. He couldn't understand why they were both in tears. He felt that perhaps this turn of events would be the thing to make or break them; and perhaps it was the fear of such an event that brought the tears to their eyes. He was terrified of losing her.

* * *

Snow had been falling steadily on Boston for three days straight. It made the second week of Jordan's new job seem ten times more dreary and difficult than it already was. The only thing she had to look forward to during her day was knowing that she was going home to Danny. Nearly every evening ended the same way. He would find the exact right moment and right way to kiss her, and it wasn't long before he was making love to her. It made struggling through her days as "boss" just a little more bearable.

Despite offers from both Jordan and Lily to help Garret out while his leg healed, he insisted that it wasn't necessary. Abby had jumped at the opportunity to spend the time with her father. Lily commented that she suspected Abby was looking forward to giving Garret a hard time about abiding by rules and regulations. Visits and phone calls to Garret's house were frequent, and Lily was first in line to make sure his therapy sessions were under way. Given his easy cooperation with the requests of the court, there were going to be very few reprimands from the DA's office. But even with all of this, Jordan still worried about him…a lot.

"Jor?"

Danny's voice brought her out of her thoughts. They were sitting in her office, trying to find something that would give them a starting place with the iron overdose victim. There were benefits to taking over the morgue, and allowing him to work on this case with her without needing to ask permission was one of them. He had been assisting her on the case, lending the skills he normally exercised in Vegas.

"Yeah?" she said, leaning forward and straightening the file she was holding to make it look like her thoughts hadn't been drifting.

"Did you read this statement from his roommate?" Danny asked her. Jordan furrowed her brow and shook her head a little.

"Refresh my memory."

"Says that Phillip used to go away on weekends, sometimes on weeknights. Never told anyone where he was going or who with," he explained. Jordan nodded in recognition, running a tired hand across her forehead.

"Nigel was supposed to run searches on his credit card activity to see if we could pinpoint anything. He should have it for us this afternoon," she told him.

Before they could discuss it further, Lily walked through Jordan's open door to hand over a stack of completed paperwork for her to sign. Jordan groaned inwardly at the sight of all those papers. Lily gave her a sympathetic look as she placed them on the desk.

"Sorry," she said. "Power has its price."

Jordan rolled her eyes. "Tell me about it."

"You guys making any progress on the case?" Lily asked them.

"Possibly," Danny informed her. "We're waiting on credit activity. It might narrow down what this guy was up to."

Lily nodded. The case had caught the attention of everyone in the morgue, mostly because it had been a very slow few weeks otherwise. They all seemed to be going stir crazy, especially with Garret gone, and energy was focused on Phillip Di Giovanni. Putting down the paper she had been reading and avoiding the brand new pile to be signed, Jordan looked up at Lily.

"Have you talked to Garret today?" she asked.

"Briefly," Lily said with a slight roll of her eyes. "I asked him if he was attending all of his therapy sessions."

"And?"

"I believe his exact words were 'Bite me,'" Lily said, unable to hold back a smile. "So I assume he has been."

Jordan smiled and glanced at Danny. They exchanged amused looks. Danny had taking a liking to Garret, saying he reminded him a little of Ed Deline, and Garret had warmed slightly to Danny after seeing how well he treated Jordan. After what Woody had done to her, Garret had placed higher standards on who he thought should be with Jordan. She realized that Garret had indeed worried about her decision to go to Vegas. He resented her leaving Boston so suddenly, and she was sure he wanted to resent Danny for keeping her away. But after seeing them together, Garret had giving his form of consent…less grief about the relationship. Jordan doubted that consent would hold should she decide to return to Las Vegas.

Jordan looked away from Danny when she saw Bug walk into the room in a hurried manner.

"The PD just called in a traffic fatality near the park," he said. "They think it might be related to the Di Giovanni case."

This was what Jordan had been waiting for over the last week and a half. The police had been alerted about the case and told to look for several signs that might indicate iron poisoning in any other deaths around the city. She had taken a leap in assuming that the killer might strike again, but her assumption had just paid off. She stood up and grabbed her coat and scarf, nodding at Danny.

"We're on it," she said as she shrugged into her coat.

"Uh, Jordan," Bug said, and then paused. She glanced at him, and had a feeling what he was about to say. "They finally assigned a detective to the case…it's Woody."

"Oh. Okay," she said casually, and really only feeling half as confident as she sounded. A glance at Danny told her she had reason to worry. This was what _he_ had been waiting for…a chance to make it clear just how much she belonged to him now. And while she had no problem making Woody feel uncomfortable, she feared that a simple crime scene investigation might turn into a full fledged smack down when these two men came face to face for the first time.

"Jor, what are you afraid is going to happen?" Danny asked her as they drove to the scene. She rolled her eyes at him.

"Are you serious?" she said. "You've all but tried to send him an engraved card letting him know that I'm no longer available. What do you think I'm afraid of?"

"A duel?" he suggested jokingly.

"Two alpha males in close proximity like this is a recipe for disaster," she went on. She gave him a pleading look. "Just please promise me you won't let him drag you down to his level, 'cause he's going to try."

"Yeah, okay," Danny replied. It was silent for a moment, and then he glanced over at her with a self-satisfied look on his face. "So you think I'm an alpha male?" he grinned.

"Shut up," she said, though she laughed at the proud look on his face.

They pulled up along the police tape stretched across the street, and Jordan was surprised at the number of people that had been called out on this wreck. She caught sight of the car as she and Danny flashed their badges to the cop controlling the scene. Judging from the tire tracks on the still icy road, the Mercedes had spun out and wrapped itself nicely around a solid maple tree. Her mind didn't have time to think more on the accident, though. A voice that she had been dreading barked at them from off to her right.

"What the hell is he doing in here, Jordan? This is a closed crime scene," Woody snapped at her without so much as a hello. Jordan subconsciously put herself between Danny and Woody and gave the detective her best authoritative look.

"He's been assisting me on the case. So I'm assuming that I'm perfectly in my rights to bring him here," she said as though it was the simplest concept on earth. She saw Woody glance above her at Danny with a look of disdain on his face.

"He's not an ME," he argued.

"He's helping me," Jordan said with a note of finality, taking a step towards the wrecked car. She glanced back at Danny and caught the threatening glare in his eyes as he stared Woody down. She gently brushed her hand against his and indicated that they should get moving. With a final look at Woody, he followed her.

"Well," Woody called after them sarcastically. "Nice of you two to stop fucking around long enough to help out."


	9. Every Time We Say Goodbye

**Thank you to those who reviewed! I always appreciate it.**

**Every Time We Say Goodbye…**

Danny stopped in his tracks and wheeled around to glare at Woody.

"Excuse me?" he growled in angry disbelief.

"You heard me, Vegas boy," Woody replied, equally worked up.

"You know, for a farm hick you're sure prone to tossing out labels," Danny said sarcastically as he moved determinedly towards Woody. Jordan swallowed her own insults that she desired to throw at Woody and hurried after Danny, very aware of the others on the scene watching the confrontation.

"Danny, stop it," she pleaded firmly.

"No, if he wants to dish it out, then he's going to have to take it right back," Danny snapped, getting in Woody's face. "You wanna run that comment by me one more time?"

"I just call it like I see it," Woody said snidely. "And believe me, I've never seen her treat a guy as anything more than a convenient lay."

Danny reacted so quickly to Woody's words that Jordan didn't even have time to try to stop him from shoving Woody hard in the chest, nearly knocking him off his feet. She wasn't even sure she could have done anything, she was in such shock about what Woody had just said. The other cops on the scene immediately intervened, grabbing Woody and keeping him from launching himself at Danny, who willingly backed away as soon as the men took him by the arms.

"You son of a bitch, don't _ever_ say anything like that about her again!" Danny said forcefully.

Jordan grabbed him by the arm and pulled him away, her face warm with embarrassment and anger at what was happening. She had never been more furious at Woody, or hurt by the things he was saying. She had heard that his temper had been reeled in, but she certainly wasn't seeing the effects of his anger management. She hoped to God that Danny didn't believe a word of what Woody was saying. The comments stung badly.

"Danny, you need to calm down," she told him. "We're still here on a call."

Danny shook his head and ran his hands through his hair.

"I can't be here, Jordan," he said, a rough edge still in his voice. "I'll rip him apart if I stay."

"Then go if you need to," she said. "Just don't do this here. This is not the place"

"Don't you care about what he just said?" he asked her incredulously.

"Yes, I think it's shitty what he's doing," she argued, crossing her arms over her chest. "But I can not deal with it right now."

"Fine," Danny said shortly, looking away from her in frustration. She didn't say anything. "I need to get out of here."

He walked away before she had the chance to say a word, his hands shoved angrily into his coat pockets. Jordan looked down at the ground, shivering from the cold and the fear that Woody's words would somehow send Danny packing. They had never really fought before. And while she never expected them not to fight, it was the intensity of this first battle and everything surrounding it that made it a hundred times worse than if they had fought about leaving the toothpaste cap off. She sniffed softly and looked up at where Woody was standing. He stared right back at her, his expression stone cold. She hated him for doing this.

Her glare nearly cut him in two. Woody had never seen that amount of resentment and sadness in her face. He had really hurt her this time. _Well, that was your intention, wasn't it?_ he thought to himself.

Jordan watched him turn away from her and mutter something to a nearby cop, then walk off the scene. The young cop walked hesitantly towards her, looking very much like he wanted nothing to do with this personal situation.

"Detective Hoyt asked if you could just fax him the report later today," he said to Jordan. She softened a little at the pathetic tone in the young man's voice, nodding her agreement. The cop started to walk away, then stopped and turned back to her. "I wouldn't take it too personally," he tried naively to comfort her. "Word around the station is that things ended badly with Lu recently. There was another man…or something."

He walked away quickly when Jordan didn't respond to the information. She knew enough to take the PD gossip with a grain of salt. Still, if it was true, she felt bad to an extent. No one deserved to be cheated on…well, almost no one.

Left alone with nothing to do but examine the car wreck, Jordan gathered her equipment and walked towards to Mercedes. Her work was the only thing that could possibly distract her at this point. The scene did very little to release her from her problems, though. Jordan had seen the pictures from Garret's accident. The tire prints on the ground from the car spinning out on an icy road much like this one. As she neared the driver's side, she had to swallow hard to keep her stomach from heaving. Death rarely bothered her this much anymore, but this one was pulling a number on her.

She quickly assessed the visuals of the accident. The young woman was bloodied and battered. Jordan wouldn't be surprised if the autopsy revealed a crushed ribcage or a shattered skull. It looked as though she had collided with the window, hard enough to smash it. Jordan then saw the reason the police had called her in. Vomit covered the front of the girl, as well as part of the steering wheel and the dash board. Just like Phillip, this girl's stomach lining was probably destroyed. There was only one way to find out for sure. Jordan called one of the cops over to help her out.

"Did she have an ID on her?" she asked as they transferred the body to the van.

"Yeah. Keri March, age twenty three," the cop told her. Jordan furrowed her brow.

"That sounds familiar," she commented.

"It should. You've probably seen it in the local tabloids or newspapers," he said. "Right along with Westly Appleton's."

Jordan looked up, surprised. "Judge Jeffrey Appleton's son?"

"Exactly," the cop gave her a significant look. Jordan suddenly understood why there were so many people on this scene. The press was going to have a field day, as usual, with a possible murder that connected to a public figure.

Heading back to the morgue, she committed herself to spending the rest of her day conducting the autopsy. She was not ready to face Danny yet, and anything to prolong that moment was a good thing. Really, she shouldn't have felt so upset about talking to him about what happened. He had defended her, very chivalrously at that. But what if he started asking questions? Her relationship record wasn't fabulous, and she had already gone to Vegas once at his request with the intent of using him for sex, and only sex. He had to realize that that was a phase she had long passed, and the only thing she wanted now was him. He just had to.

Her mind was only half on her work, but she still found what she needed. Tox came back positive for iron poisoning and Keri's digestive system was destroyed, just like Phillip. Now she had to hand over the report to the police to let them find the connection between the killings. They were too similar to not have a tie. And Jordan fully intended to back away from the case once the file was out of her hands. She wanted nothing more to do with Woody on this one. She had just finished with the autopsy and was about to wheel the body back to the crypt when she heard the door swing open. She looked up to see Bug walk in.

"Hey," he said. "Any luck?"

"Iron poisoning, just like the other one," she told him, placing her hands on her hips. Bug nodded.

"Did you find anything to connect the two?" he asked.

"I didn't try," she said dryly. "My job stops when the body is sewn back up."

Bug looked at her skeptically, knowing she was being purposefully stubborn. The look on her face said she knew she wasn't fooling anyone. Bug sighed a little, tired of the game he thought Jordan had grown out of.

"I heard about what happened today," he told her. Jordan blinked in surprise, and tried too late to cover the fact that she cared that the day had turned into gossip already. "If you want, I can take over the case for you."

"Oh," Jordan said. Bug's offer was not what she had been expecting. She considered it for a moment, then said, "Uh, you know, I think I'll stay on it. Why should I back down?" she smiled genuinely. "Thank you, though."

"Sure," Bug said. "I just thought I'd offer. And…you know, if you wanted, we have a lot of deadly chemicals lying around. Nigel could slip them into his drink and make it look like a complete accident."

"Um," Jordan laughed. "I don't think that will be necessary. Danny scared him pretty good today already."

Bug smiled and nodded. "He's good for you, Jordan," he said after a moment, taking her by surprise again. "We all see it."

Jordan opened her mouth, but found that the sincerity of Bug's comment left her speechless. She could only smile, slightly embarrassed, and glance down at her feet briefly. She looked back up when she heard a knock on the door to the autopsy room. Danny stood on the other side of the glass, waiting for their permission to enter. Bug glanced back at Jordan with a knowing look and excused himself, leaving the door open for Danny as he left. Danny took a few shuffling steps into the room.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey," she replied softly, giving him a smile. It was the encouragement he needed to walk closer to her, knowing she was not mad.

"Look…about today," he started. "I'm sorry I lost it. I wasn't thinking about what it would do to you. You were there to do a job."

"It's okay," she said, a slight sparkle in her eyes. "The more I think about it, the more I wish you had been able to knock him out. That would have been worth a trip to the DA's office for a reprimand."

Danny smiled at her. After a moment, he glanced down, the smile dropping from his face. "Um. I need to talk to you about something."

Jordan felt her heart skip a beat. She did not like the tone in his voice. It sounded too serious. Holding her breath, she waited for him to go on.

"After I left today, I got a call from Ed," he said slowly. He looked up at her, willing that she would understand what he had to tell her. "There was a huge security breach at the casino this morning. He's desperate for help, Jor."

"And he needs you to go back," she finished for him, looking down at her hands clasped in front of her.

"There's a red eye tonight that he wants me on," he said quietly, looking away from her. When she stayed silent, Danny looked up and searched her face for a moment, his brow dropping in concern. "This isn't because of today, Jordan," he told her.

"No, I know," she replied quickly. She tried to remain clam while her mind raced to rationalize him leaving her. He knew she could not come with him. She was in charge of the morgue while Garret was gone, and there was no way she was breaking that promise to him. It was bad timing, that was all. It had nothing to do with what Woody said. Danny wasn't questioning her intentions. He was not leaving because of that. _Please, God, don't let my past ruin this_, she pleaded silently. She felt his hands come to rest on either side of her face, lifting her face to look at him.

"I'm not going because of what happened today," he said firmly, looking her straight in the eye with as much love as he ever had. "I'm not."

Jordan let out a breath and forced herself to relax, smiling uncertainly at him. Danny held her gaze for several seconds, starting to look more nervous as the time passed.

"I know I told you I would give you more warning than this," he started falteringly, dropping his hands from her face and reaching into his pocket. "But…I don't know how long I'll have to be gone, and I didn't want to leave without giving you this."

He pulled his hand from his pocket and opened his palm towards her, revealing a small black velvet box which he opened quickly out of nerves. Jordan blinked in shock, her jaw dropping slightly at the sight of the silver ring sitting inside the box – a delicate emerald framed generously by diamonds. She felt her heart leap into her throat, and she looked up to meet his eyes…they were filled with hope.


	10. Gimme Love

**A/N: So apparently my muse goes on vacation during midterms…sorry about the enormously long wait. Meh. **

**Gimme Love**

"Okay, I know I sprang this on you out of the blue," Danny started rambling nervously. "And it must seem like I'm just trying to make up for having to leave and everything, but, really, I've had this for a few weeks now, and you can take that however you want, and I don't expect you to answer me righ-"

He never finished as Jordan closed the space between them and leaned up to kiss him, hooking her arms around his neck and pulling him against her. She heard his slight grunt of surprise at her sudden action, and then felt him relax into the kiss for several moments before pulling away to look into her eyes with a now smoldering smile.

"So is that a yes?" he asked.

"Yes," she said softly, knowing she had a hopelessly happy grin on her face. She shocked herself with the ease of her answer. She had thought about this moment for a while now, expecting that it was coming eventually. And she thought that she would have to fight her 'fear of commitment' side to make the choice she wanted, just as she had fought to allow herself to fall for…other guys. But this came so naturally, fearlessly.

Danny wordlessly took the ring and dropped the box back into his pocket. He gently reached for her left hand, which she gave him willingly, her heart starting to beat faster. She took a deep breath and told herself to calm down, thinking she was being ridiculous, until she noticed Danny's own hands shaking. She looked up at him with a smile.

"A little nervous?" she teased him gently.

"No," he said quickly, laughing at himself. "Just happy."

As he said this, he looked down and slipped the ring onto her delicate finger, properly marking the love he felt for her. Jordan stared at the silver band for a moment, and then moved into his arms, sliding her hands under his jacket and wrapping her arms around him tightly. Resting her head against his chest, she could hear his heart beating rapidly, and it relieved her to know that he was human enough to feel the enormity of what had just happened. A thought occurred to Jordan, and she giggled before she could stop herself.

"What?" Danny asked, looking down at her.

"You proposed to me in an autopsy room with a dead body in it," she said, biting her lip to keep from laughing. "The irony of my life just keeps getting better."

"Hey, I was under a time crunch, gimme a break," Danny smiled. His face sobered, and he lowered his head to whisper in her ear. "Close your eyes…picture any place you want."

Jordan did as she was told, her skin tingling from his breath. She barely had the chance to imagine being anyplace else before she felt his lips touch hers softly. His kisses still left her in suspense, as promising as the very first time. He never took advantage of the fact that he had already won her, and he approached her almost tentatively whenever he could. It made things all the better when he began to explore her mouth, knowing every touch and rhythm that would make her forget they were even in Boston, let alone the morgue. Jordan was just beginning to contemplate doing some very unconventional things in the autopsy room when she heard someone clear their throat. She pulled away from Danny quickly and was shocked to see Woody standing in the doorframe, his hand holding the door open.

"Sorry to interrupt," he muttered.

"The hell you are," Danny said under his breath. Jordan could practically see him trying to add inches to his height and prayed that the two would not pick up where they had left off earlier.

"What do you want?" she asked impatiently.

"I need the autopsy report tonight," he replied evenly. "You said you would fax it by five, it's six thirty."

"I can't fax the report until I'm finished with the autopsy," she said sarcastically.

"Are you finished now?" he demanded sharply.

"Yes," she snapped. "Go wait in the lobby, I'll bring it to you."

Woody turned on his heel and let the door swing shut behind him. Jordan closed her eyes and shook her head in frustration. Danny reached up and stroked her hair gently with one hand.

"I don't know if I can keep doing this," she sighed, reaching for his hand and tightening her fingers over his. "I'd be on that plane with you if it weren't for what I promised Garret."

"I think there's more keeping you here than that," he said understandingly, but not without some regret. He knew she was feeling torn about many things. But he also knew that she was too dedicated to her job to ask her to walk away, even if she was close to deciding to do just that.

"Maybe," she said, taking a deep breath. Danny considered her for a moment.

"Why don't you get this report done," he told her. "Then we'll still have time to grab some coffee before I leave."

"Who wants to waste time on coffee?" Jordan asked with a mischievous smile, taking hold of his tie and pulling him close.

"Oh, I see," Danny feigned enlightenment. "Well, better be quick about that report," he said as he leaned down to kiss her.

"Or I could just not do the report," Jordan murmured against his lips.

"Something makes me think he'll hunt you down," he murmured back, kissing her lightly between statements. "I didn't like him interrupting us before. I might knock him out if he interrupted anything else."

With one final kiss, Danny reluctantly released her to finish up. Telling her that he would be waiting in her office, he watched her wheel the body out of the room before leaving through the opposite door. The sight of that ring on her finger thrilled him more than words could say. He would miss her immensely while he was in Vegas, but the thought of her wearing the engagement ring would do a great deal to ease his mind.

Danny hadn't walked two steps out of the autopsy room when he looked up to see Woody leaning sullenly against the wall opposite the door. He knew exactly what Woody's problem was, though he would do nothing to help the guy out. As Danny and Jordan had grown closer, she had revealed much more about their fallout, and the pain that was involved. Danny wasn't blind to the situation. He knew he had stolen Jordan, in a manner of speaking.

He was about to walk away towards Jordan's office to avoid an uncomfortable encounter when Woody spoke.

"You think you know her?"

"Probably better than you ever did," Danny replied curtly. If Woody planned on starting another fight, he certainly wasn't going to back out quietly.

"You don't know a thing about her," Woody went on bitterly. "You think you've got a hold on her? Give it a little while. When you meet the real Jordan, you'll realize you never had her at all. That she's just been playing with you the entire time, and she never meant any of it."

"That's your great insight into her?" Danny said condescendingly, taking a few steps towards Woody. "You really think you've got her number? Or that it's a surprise to me that she has relationship issues? What did you ever bother to find out about her beyond her problems? Did you know that she watches _The Nutcracker_ on TV every Christmas? Or that she looks beautiful even when she's vacuuming her apartment in her sweats? She cries every time she hears "Over The Rainbow." And she still has nightmares about her mother. Did you ever bother to find those things out?"

Woody stared at Danny with an unchanging expression, fighting hard against the anger that he felt about not knowing those things at all. He hadn't known Jordan as well as he should have. Perhaps if he had known those details about her life, or shared his own with her, he wouldn't have screwed their relationship up so horribly. Now, all he was left with was the vision of her in another man's arms. Again. Maybe even permanently.

"Don't think I didn't try," he told Danny in a low voice. "I'm just warning you, man. Don't be surprised when she freaks."

With that, Woody shoved himself away from the wall and walked off down the hall, turning the corner. Danny was left slightly disconcerted, arguing with himself that Woody was simply bitter and jealous and there was nothing more to it. Jordan was the first to admit that she had been skittish in her relationships for many years. That didn't mean she always had to be that way. She had already sacrificed a lot to be with him. Danny found himself wanting to prove Woody completely wrong, but that goal held a pitfall known to many in the world, including him, to be a lost cause in relationships: he wanted to be the one that could convince Jordan to change her ways.

* * *

Jordan walked up the front path to the house, stopping for only a second before rapping on the door. It was a little late in the evening, but she had felt somewhat lost after dropping Danny at the airport and she didn't know where else to go. She didn't have to wait long before the door opened and Abby stood in the doorway, a smile on her face.

"Hey Jordan," she said brightly.

"Hey," Jordan replied, not quite able to match the young woman's enthusiasm.

"Is everything okay?" Abby asked, a little concerned at Jordan's tone.

"Yeah, just a long day," Jordan gave a tight smile. "How about you guys? Keeping each other out of trouble?"

"Oh yes," Abby smiled knowingly, standing to one side to allow Jordan to come in.

The house was still in impeccable shape, just as it had been a few days ago on her last visit, a testament of Abby's hand in her father's care. Jordan was really very grateful that things had changed between Garret and his daughter. The girl's return to his life at this moment seemed to be the perfect event to encourage him to move in the right direction. He was doing much better lately. Garret had a hard time refusing help when Abby had done so much to change herself.

Abby led her into the living room, where Garret was sitting on the couch watching TV, his leg propped up on the coffee table. He sat up when he saw Jordan, reaching for the remote to turn the volume down. Jordan glanced at the screen.

"_Casablanca_?" she asked. Garret shrugged. "Why am I not surprised?"

"So what do you need to talk about?" Garret asked her, patting the couch next to him to invite her to sit down.

"What makes you think I need to talk about something?" she asked much too innocently, joining him on the couch.

"You don't usually drop by this late," he said. "And you have that look on your face."

"What look?"

"That look that says something is bugging the crap out of you, but you want someone to have to ask before you'll tell anyone," Garret told her. Jordan set her jaw against a smart retort and looked down.

"Danny had to go back to Vegas tonight," she said quietly, unconsciously fingering the ring that sat glistening on her finger, drawing Garret's attention to it. He reached out and took her hand, lifting it up so that he could examine the ring. Jordan waited, wanting Garret's voice of reason.

"My guess is he's coming back," he said simply, returning her hand and looking at her. "What else is bothering you?"

"You're starting to pick up techniques from your shrink, aren't you?" she joked, and then sighed tiredly at the no-nonsense look on his face. "I don't want to get into it right now."

"So did you just come over here to mope?"

"Well I thought you might like to be the first to congratulate me," she waved her left hand in front of him in slight exasperation.

"I am happy for you, Jordan," Garret said honestly. "As long as you're happy, that's all that matters. I'd offer to celebrate with a drink, but…" This time it was Jordan who gave the no-nonsense look. "You're welcome to help yourself to whatever Abby hasn't thrown out or hidden, though."

"Nah, that's okay," Jordan said. "After today…it might just make me sick."

Garret raised an eyebrow at her, surprised that she would turn down a nightcap. Jordan looked up at him and tried to smile, but found herself blinking back tears. She seemed to be doing a lot of that lately. Garret placed an arm around her shoulder and tucked her against his side, rubbing her arm softly.

"I'm really going to miss him, Garret," she said quietly. "I didn't know it would be this hard to let him go back."

"It'll get better," he said sympathetically. "Just hang in there."


	11. What I Don't Have

**What I Don't Have**

Jordan was beginning to live for twelve o'clock. And three o'clock. And six and nine. All times that Danny would find a spare moment in his day to call or text message her. Even if it was a simple message that read 'hello,' she lived for it. As she went into the third week of his absence from her life, she was starting to think that thirty messages a day would never be enough. She ached for the other half of her heart that boarded that plane with him.

Fortunately, there was plenty to keep her busy during her days at the morgue. After a somewhat rocky start, she had mastered the position of Chief ME. It helped that all of her coworkers backed her one hundred percent. Things had finally picked up a little speed, and she was running the morgue like a well oiled machine. The DA's office was impressed that their madcap ME had made such a turnaround in the face of Garret's accident. In addition, Jordan was expertly working the details of the Iron poisoning cases without ever having to deal with Woody. That in itself was like running a marathon.

Sidney and Nigel had helped immensely by finding some very key pieces of information. They had traced Phillip Di Giovanni's credit card to some local hot spots that Keri March and Westly Appleton had frequented, or so said the owners. However, they could not remember seeing Phillip himself there with either one. While there was nothing in Phillip's apartment that gave them any leads, they struck gold with Keri's place. A bottle of vitamin supplements had produced a print - one that was an undeniable match to Westly Appleton. The vitamins had been replaced with lethal capsules of Iron. With this information, the police had quickly procured a warrant and took Westly into custody, to the fury of his father the judge.

The last Jordan had heard of the case was two days ago when there was a monumental battle ensuing between Judge Appleton, the cops, and the DA's office on the proceedings of holding Westly and questioning him. For once, she was glad to be able to wash her hands of a case, ridding herself of unneeded and unwanted stress. That was one fight she was in no hurry to enter. She had done her job, letting the bodies speak the truth. In her opinion, it looked as though Keri had been having an affair with Phillip, and Westly's jealousy went too far. But the only person left to confirm that was Westly himself.

Jordan took a deep breath and let it out, watching the effect of her warm breath in the freezing air. Being done for the day, she had slipped silently from the morgue and scaled the stairs up to the roof. It felt like years since she had been up there, enjoying the sanctity it offered. She tugged her parka around her and adjusted her scarf so that it covered her jaw line. The sky was clear, and she gazed at the few stars that could be seen in the middle of Boston.

Wrapping her arms tightly about her middle, she gently fingered the engagement ring beneath her gloved hand. Nothing in her life had ever gone so right, so fast as her relationship with Danny. It made her smile. A million times she had wondered what would have happened if she had never lost her mind for a day and flew to Vegas. But it didn't matter now. She was going to be his wife.

The sound of the door to the roof creaking open broke the silence that she had been enjoying. Her heart jumped. _Could it be…?_

Jordan turned around and could not for the life of her mask the look of extreme disappointment when she saw Woody standing there. His own wounded expression let her know that he grasped the full meaning of her look. He carefully let the door close and stood there awkwardly, his hands shoved into the pockets of his jacket.

"Hey," she said coolly.

"Hi," he answered. She continued to stare stonily at him, making him feel like he was being dissected with her steely eyes. "Nigel told me that he thought he saw you come up here."

Her response was an arched eyebrow. She would have to have a talk with Nigel about giving her whereabouts to Woody. Somehow, she got the feeling that the staff thought things had simmered between the two.

"Well he was right," she said evenly. "Here I am."

"Um," Woody started, taking a few cautious steps towards her. "I just…well, I just wanted to drop by and let you know that Westly Appleton finally cracked."

"Keri was having an affair?" she guessed, her interest in the case overriding her resistance to talking to him.

"No, actually," he said. "Westly was having the affair…with Phillip."

Jordan's eyebrows shot up in surprise, her cold expression dropping completely.

"Wow," she breathed. "Didn't see that one coming."

"I guess Westly was using Keri as a cover. He didn't want his family to find out he was gay, especially his father. He thought that his father would blame him for any detriments the news might cause to his career," Woody explained. "Keri was getting sick of it, though. She was threatening to expose them."

"But why kill Phillip?"

"It was an accident," he said tiredly. "Phillip found the bottle of vitamins that Westly had prepared for Keri and took some, thinking they were normal."

"But they were laced," Jordan offered, and Woody nodded.

"Keri flipped out, and threatened to call the cops. Westly panicked," he finished. He paused for a moment, looking into her eyes briefly before glancing down. "He made all the wrong choices."

Jordan swallowed. That statement had not been subtle at all. Woody barely attempted to hide the fact that he wasn't talking about the case anymore. It scared Jordan. She could not believe he was doing this, not here, not now.

"Woody," she started, but he cut her off.

"You're really marrying him?" he demanded, though not sharply. He sounded desperate. She hated hearing that tone in his voice, even after all this time.

"Yes," she answered firmly. Woody looked up at her from beneath his lashes, regret washed over his face. Jordan was nearly shocked. His emotions were laying there in his eyes, exposed completely. She hadn't seen him this vulnerable in a long time. He took a few more careful steps towards her, and she countered in the other direction only to find that she was trapped by the wall.

"Why, Jo?" he asked her. She let out a disbelieving laugh.

"Are you kidding me?" she shot back. "You have the nerve to ask me that after all you've put me through? _Why_? Because you threw me away when you didn't want me anymore, because you told me to screw my pity and move on with my life! That's why!"

She saw a flash of heat enter his eyes, but whether he was angry at her or himself, she couldn't say. He looked taken aback that she had lashed out at him so strongly.

"But I-"

"Don't you dare tell me you didn't think I actually would move on," she said in a low voice. As she went on, she felt the hurt he had caused her surface, and she fought to control her emotions. "Don't tell me you're sorry or that you regret what you did. Don't tell me you missed me, don't tell me you're life wasn't right without me. Don't."

He regarded her in silence for several moments, his brow drawn down in his typical frustrated fashion.

"Don't you regret it?" he asked her quietly, intensely. "Didn't you feel all of what you just said, even the slightest bit?"

"Maybe, at one point," she said honestly, losing the hold she had on her emotions. If he kept asking her these questions, she was going to start sobbing uncontrollably. "But that's over now. _You_ ended it. You made me feel like I was worse than dead. And I finally learned to walk away from your hatred. Was I supposed to wait for you when you couldn't care less about me?" she asked point blank.

Unable to wait for an answer, she shut her eyes tight against the tears that were welling over and dropped her face into her hand to hide the pain. She sniffed and took a shaky breath of the freezing night air. Why did he have to do this to her? He was opening too many wounds that she had nursed so carefully and almost healed. She wiped at her eyes with her gloved hand, keeping them tight shut in an infantile theory that if she couldn't see him, then he didn't exist. She recognized too late that that idea was idiotic at the moment.

His lips were on hers before she could even sense that he had drawn closer, her eyelids hiding his approach. For a few glorious seconds, his kiss sent warm tingles through her body, sending her back to a night in California where she had made a choice that had altered their relationship forever. But reality set in quickly, and she pushed him firmly away, fresh tears sliding down her cheeks. Woody looked at her as though she had socked him in the gut.

"Don't do this, Woody," she pleaded. "It's too late."

"Jordan, please," he said, reaching out to grasp one of her hands. "I can't walk away without at least trying to… at least finding out if you still love me, that I might still have a chance."

"After the way you've treated me," she muttered almost to herself, her eyes unable to tear themselves from his. "I don't think I'll ever stop loving you, Woody. But it's too late to go back to what might have been. I'm in love with Danny now-"

"Why him, Jordan?" he cut her off angrily, and she saw the damage her words had done. "Why Danny fucking McCoy, of all the people in the world?"

"I don't know!" she choked out. "I don't know why I fell in love with him. I don't know why I fell in love with _you_! But I did. It just happens, I didn't choose it!"

"Then try again, Jordan, try to love me again," he begged her.

And suddenly Jordan saw it. His horrible attitude towards her, the awful things he had been saying behind her back, and in front of it, the way his temper exploded whenever she and Danny were around – he had been trying to drive Danny away. She had underestimated how jealous he would be. And now the truth was staring her in the face. Woody had never stopped loving her. Her face froze in horrific realization, her eyes blinking rapidly in worry.

"I can't," she whispered. "Not in the way you want me to."

"Can't or won't?" he challenged her, his voice low and intense.

"I can't, _and_ I won't," she told him, her own voice silvered with sadness as she knowingly broke his heart, the way he had broken hers so many months ago. "I'm so sorry."

"Why the hell not, Jordan? Why can't we break through all of this and try one more time?" he asked desperately. Jordan shook her head and looked up at the sky, silently asking for help.

"Because I love Danny too much to do that to him," she said. "And-" she bit her lip, fighting for her last bit of resolve. Woody searched her eyes.

"And?" he urged her. Jordan shut her eyes for a moment to pool what strength she had left, set her jaw, and met Woody's gaze firmly.

"I'm pregnant."


	12. Times Like This

**A/N: I'm trying really hard to keep this story moving, but I've been focusing my energy these last few weeks on an audition for a workshop program in NY…good news is, I made it! This leads to more free time now to write. So thanks for being patient and for the reviews, especially Nynaeve1723! I hope you're feeling better!**

**- Kate**

**Times Like This**

The time between Jordan's revelation and Woody's reaction seemed to encompass an eternity. An eternity in which she felt that the world had frozen, and all that existed was his face, filled with pain. It hurt her more than he would ever know to have to tell him that she had begun a new chapter of her life that did not involve him. But she would never feel the same way about her Wisconsin Detective again. Ever. The time when she could have given him her heart had passed.

Jordan stared into Woody's wide blue eyes, the enormity of her words registering in his mind. This was it. Any chance of winning her back was whipped away with the knowledge that she was carrying Danny McCoy's child.

"You're sure?" he asked meekly. It was the only thing he could think to say.

"Extremely," she whispered, finally allowing her eyes to drop away from his. She felt his hands release hers and watched him take a hesitant step back. "I wish I knew what to say right now," she said awkwardly.

Woody absently waved a dismissive hand.

"You don't owe me anything," he muttered, beginning to walk away from her. "I think…uh, I think I'll just leave you alone now."

"Woody-"

"You said it yourself, Jordan. I destroyed this. Please, just let me deal with it my own way."

With one last glance at her, he turned and left. Jordan stared at the door for a long time, her mind thinking of nothing and everything at the same time. She wanted to cry, but found that she couldn't. It was odd. Her emotions had gotten the better of her for the last several weeks, and suddenly, when she should be overwhelmed, she was bereft of tears.

Strangely enough, she felt a certain amount of catharsis. She had been avoiding having to deal with Woody for so long. And she had told no one of her pregnancy. After years of practice, Jordan thought she would have mastered secrecy by this point in her life. But keeping feelings locked away never got any easier. Perhaps it had been a good thing that Woody had sought her out tonight. Painful as it was, Jordan found a small amount of closure in the encounter, if only in that she had been able release herself from a relationship that she doubted ever existed in the first place.

She had hoped and prayed for weeks that Woody still loved her, and had been given nothing to make her believe that he did. A few heated but angry glances, maybe concern for her safety, but no more than would be spared for any citizen in danger. It ate her up inside. But she had dragged herself through it. And she had moved on.

Very purposefully, Jordan placed a hand over her stomach, feeling what could not really be felt yet. Voicing her pregnancy, something she herself had only known about for a few days, made it incredibly real. With any luck, the next person she would tell would be her child's father…and hopefully he would be as happily amazed by it as she was.

* * *

The next morning at work, Jordan had little time to think on the previous night as she continued bonding with the bathroom stall farthest from the door in what she was sure was her ten thousandth battle with morning sickness. When it had first started, she brushed it off as the stomach flu and treated it as such. But after a week, she could no longer deny that her symptoms were not at all congruous with the stomach flu. For a day or two, she was too scared of the implications to even attempt to put the pieces of the puzzle together. But when she finally forced herself to sit down and do the math, she barely even needed the pregnancy test to tell her what she was sure of. The trip to the doctor's office had simply been to finalize things – Jordan Cavanaugh was going to be a mother.

But at the moment, leaning against the unforgiving wall of the stall, the tile floor cold beneath her legs, she wasn't feeling very motherly. It was hard not to be pissed off at the minute being causing her all of this discomfort. She was starting to think that morning sickness, not to mention the birth itself, must be Mother Nature's challenge to women. If they could get through it without going nuts, then they deserved to be mothers. Jordan ran her hands over her face and let out a deep sigh.

She heard the door to the bathroom squeak open, and sat quietly, hoping whoever it was would leave without noticing her.

"Jordan?"

Lily's voice caused Jordan to roll her eyes up to the ceiling. The grief counselor had been looking at her funny all week. The woman was too observant for her own good, and Jordan only hoped that she would keep her suspicions to herself for a little while longer.

"Jordan, I saw you come in here, you might as well just talk to me," Lily said.

Jordan shook her head and stood up in defeat. She unlatched the door and walked out with the most casual look she could muster, heading for a sink to wash her hands. She cringed inwardly when she saw how disheveled she looked in the mirror.

"Hey Lily," she said cheerfully.

Crossing her arms, Lily leaned against the counter and looked Jordan over.

"So how long have you known?" Lily asked.

"Known what?" Jordan tried to play dumb. Lily gave her a humoring smile.

"C'mon, Jordan," she said. "This is your eighth trip to the bathroom this morning, and I'm pretty sure you haven't gone bulimic on us. How long have you known that you're pregnant?"

Jordan opened her mouth with the intention of lying, but hesitated and wondered what the use would be. In four months time, her own body would give her away. She shut the water off and placed her hands on the counter.

"Officially, five days," she told Lily, unable to suppress the pleased smile that tugged at the corners of her mouth. "But I think I've known for a few weeks…just too anxious to do anything about it."

Before Jordan could even react, Lily's arms were flung around her in a tight hug, almost knocking Jordan off balance. She grinned full out, partly in amusement at her friend.

"This is so exciting," Lily said eagerly, pulling back to look at Jordan anew.

"Yeah, it is," Jordan nodded, slightly subdued in embarrassment from Lily's enthusiasm.

"What was Danny's reaction? Does anyone else know? Did you tell Garret? Oh! Can I throw you a baby shower?" Lily fired off questions in rapid succession. Jordan didn't know where to start with her answers.

"Ah, of course you can. And…you're the first to know. Or guess, actually," she lied through her teeth. No need for it to get around that Woody had been the first.

"Danny doesn't know yet?" Lily asked in surprise.

"Uh, not yet," Jordan shook her head. "It's not really something I want to tell him over the phone."

"Oh of course," Lily agreed immediately. She smiled at her friend. "I'm so happy for you, Jordan."

"Thanks, Lily," Jordan smiled back. After a moment, she said as graciously as possible, "Um, would you mind not telling anyone just yet? I don't want all of Boston to know before the father does."

"Absolutely," Lily said earnestly. She bit her lip, her eyes sparkling with excitement. "I should probably get back to work before they notice that both of us are missing. I'll just tell them you're not feeling well." Jordan nodded her thanks. Lily gave her hand a squeeze. "You're gonna be a mom," she said wistfully, and Jordan heard the personal longing in her voice.

It brought a whole new importance to her situation.

Jordan couldn't shake the way Lily had said those words for the rest of the day. She knew her friend wasn't jealous by any means, but she knew there was a bit of wishful-ness. There had never been much talk in the morgue about family life, settling down. Jordan was one in a group of misfits who were still recovering from their own childhoods and who could barely contemplate bringing brand new life of their own into the world. Or so it seemed.

The one time Jordan had considered adopting a baby, they had told her only half jokingly that she couldn't even keep goldfish properly. She hadn't felt very inclined to voice any desires for a family after that. Maybe she hadn't been the only one.

When she got home that night, she pulled out a few photo albums that contained pictures of her early childhood and sat herself down on the couch to look through them. She stared for a long time at the pictures of her mother, her belly filled out in her third trimester. The pictures made her wonder what that time had been like, how she had felt, how she had told Max that she was pregnant. Her mother had not lived long enough to tell Jordan things like that. She could only assume they were happy. They looked happy.

A knock on the door tore her attention away from the photos. She jumped up eagerly, looking forward to the Chinese that she had ordered. At the moment, it was one of three things her stomach tolerated for dinner. Pulling open the door, she stopped in her tracks at the sight of Danny standing on the other side, a smile on his face.

"Hey beautiful," he said. Jordan gaped at him.

"What are you doing here?" she asked incredulously, breaking into an ecstatic grin.

"Well, I seem to remember leaving a fiancé around these parts," Danny joked. "You know where I can find her?"

Jordan laughed and wrapped her arms tightly about his neck, closing her eyes and breathing in his presence. He held her close, burying his face in the dark waves of her hair.

"God I missed you," she murmured.

"Not half as much as I missed you," he replied, his voice humming into her body. It sent chills down her spine. He pulled back just far enough to look into her eyes, and then lowered his mouth to hers. He kissed her soundly, letting her know exactly how much she had been missed. When she felt his tongue play teasingly at her lips, she willingly opened her mouth to him. The sensations of his kiss sent an unusually strong thrill to her belly, and she suddenly remembered what she had to tell him now that he was back. His hands slid down her back and back up underneath her shirt, and she moaned softly, deciding the news could wait a few more minutes.

It wasn't until one of Jordan's neighbors emerged from their apartment several minutes later and startled the couple did they decide it would be wise to move into the privacy of the apartment. They exchanged looks reminiscent of teenagers who had been caught necking as Jordan closed the door. She smiled at Danny as he put his things down.

"What?" he asked.

"Just glad you're back," she said simply.

"Me too," he agreed, kissing her lightly before making his way to the kitchen. Jordan made to follow him, then saw something on the counter that made her stop. He didn't notice her uncertainty. "So what should we have to celebrate? Champagne? That Chardonnay we've been saving?"

"Uh, nothing for me, thanks," she told him. He looked at her sideways, his eyes narrowed.

"Is everything okay?"

"What, can't a girl just turn down a drink without it making the morning news?" she teased him, hoping to distract his instincts.

"Yeah, sure," he shrugged good naturedly, but still eyed her carefully as she moved slowly towards the counter. He grabbed a glass for himself and placed it down on the island. That's when he noticed a grainy black and white photo sitting there by itself. He picked it up absently and looked at Jordan over the counter. "Is this a sonogram?" he asked her.

"Yeah," Jordan replied, her voice surprisingly calm despite the way her nerves seemed to be racing through her body.

"Did it fall out of a case file?" Danny inquired naively. Jordan shook her head, fighting back an amused smile. "Well what's it doing here?" he went on, looking at the picture a second time. Jordan waited, watching his eyes grow wide as he read the name printed at the bottom. For several moments, his eyes seemed frozen to the photo. Ever so slowly, he brought them up to meet hers. "This is…" Jordan nodded. "It's really…" Another nod. "You're…"

"Pregnant…yeah."

Without a word, Danny walked around the counter and took her in his arms. Jordan tucked herself against him and rested her head in the crook of his neck.

"Are you glad?" she asked quietly. He pulled back and gently cupped her face in his hands, looking intently into her eyes.

"Jordan, I've never been so happy about anything in my life," he said. She smiled up at him, blinking back tears of joy. Danny leaned down to kiss her forehead, and then slid his hands down her arms as he knelt down in front of her, closing his eyes and pressing his face against her belly. Jordan placed her hands tenderly on the top of his head, holding him to her as he brought himself as close as possible to their child. She looked up briefly and silently thanked the only person she could think of for this moment…her mother.


	13. Breakable

**A/N - I hate letting go of stories…so I procrastinate. And this one has been very close to my heart over the last several weeks in ways that have absolutely nothing to do with the main story line… if that makes any sense at all, lol! Personal emotions getting thrown into a totally unrelated fanfic, so ending it has been hard. Meh. My apologies, especially to Roslyn918…hope the wait wasn't too torturous, and that it was worth it! Ciao!**

**- Kate**

* * *

**Breakable**

Having Danny home eased Jordan into a sense of happiness that had been eluding her for the past several weeks. No longer going to bed alone, ordering meals for one from their favorite take-out place, or sitting up in a quiet apartment when her work followed her home, she found herself craving his presence. Best of all, she no longer carried the knowledge of their baby all by herself. Danny treated her like a queen, almost to the point where her independent side felt threatened…until she told that side of her to shut up and enjoy the ride.

Telling others about her pregnancy proved more awkward than she had anticipated. She didn't know what she was afraid of…rejection, fear that she would be seen as fragile? She wasn't entirely sure. But they were going to find out soon enough. So, one day not long after Danny came home, she swallowed her fears and had an informal meeting with Lily, Nigel, Bug, and Sidney and told them. She included Lily only because she knew the others would be slightly hurt if they knew the grief counselor had already known. After breaking the news to them, Jordan got the feeling they thought she was kidding. But once Lily smiled knowingly at her and walked over to give her a hug, reality set in on the rest. They had all been thrilled for her, offering any help that the couple might need in the months ahead.

Garret knew before she even managed to get the words out to tell him. Maybe it was because Danny had decided to go with her, and he had never visited Garret at home since the accident. His presence might have been a huge tip off. Garret smiled at Jordan's surprised look when he guessed her news.

"I've worked with you for how many years, Jordan?" he asked her. "I know you better than you would probably like to think. Congratulations, you two."

"Thanks, Garret," Jordan said, squeezing Danny's hand in hers.

"And I don't want you worrying about work," Garret told her firmly. "Two months from now, I'll be back in the morgue, and I don't want to see you putting in overtime just to prove yourself. Keep your eye on her," he added to Danny.

"I don't how much influence I've got over this girl when it comes to her work," Danny smiled, tightening his hold on Jordan's hand.

"More than you think, I'd bet," Garret said, and Jordan shot him a look that said he was getting too close to the truth of her heart.

At Jordan's apartment a week or so later, Danny had to put Garret's advice to good use as he finally managed to get her to slow down enough for a long overdue talk. He sat down next to her on the bed and slid her laptop away from her, despite her protests that she was finishing up a report.

"Jordan, we need to talk," he said, trying to keep his tone light at the look of concern in her eyes. "I know you've been avoiding this, maybe because you don't want to have to think about change, but…"

"This apartment isn't exactly the best place to be raising a child," Jordan ventured, and Danny nodded. She sighed and looked down at her hands. "I know. I guess I have been avoiding thinking about it. But we need to start planning on finding another place…here, or in Vegas," she added carefully.

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about," he said, reaching out to take one of her hands. "I talked to Ed the other day…he's been talking about retiring. I don't really have any family left out there, and once Ed leaves the casino I won't feel so obligated to stay there. I know how much Boston means to you…"

Jordan stared at him slightly wide eyed. Danny had been right – she had been trying not to think of possibly having to leave Boston. Things had changed so much since she had decided to fly to Vegas, and the thought of leaving again was hard to cope with. Gently, she placed a hand against his cheek and looked into his eyes.

"You'd stay here for me?" she asked almost disbelievingly.

"Of course," he answered, smiling at her in the way that melted her heart.

"What'll you do for a job?"

"I had Ed put in a few calls to the head of security at Chancellor Square," Danny told her with a smile, and she laughed.

"Did they remember your heroic actions saving the Ambassador of China?" she inquired jokingly.

"Hopefully not," he chuckled. "But they did offer me a nice position there."

Brushing her thumb against his cheek, Jordan leaned in to kiss him softly. Danny brought his hands up to lace his fingers into the dark waves of her hair, caressing her lips with his.

"I love you so much, Jordan," he whispered against her lips. "I'll do anything to make you happy."

"Oh yeah?" she arched an eyebrow suggestively, eliciting a lusty chuckle from him.

"Yeah," he replied, easing her back against the pillows. "Starting with making you my wife as soon as possible."

* * *

Danny was true to his word. One month later, they had a small, private ceremony that officially made Jordan Mrs. Danny McCoy. He could not take his eyes off of her that day, thrilling in the look of happiness on her face. Never in his wildest dreams would he have imagined marrying a woman like her, but now he couldn't see it any other way.

They decided to stall a honeymoon in order to settle down in a house once Danny's position in the security department at Chancellor Square became finalized. It didn't take them long to find a quaint house just outside the city. The moment Jordan set foot on the property, she knew – she could see their future inside that house. And so she said goodbye to Pearl Street, but only with a small amount of regret, to start a life she hadn't thought attainable.

Jordan didn't see Woody for months. She heard through the rumor mill that he had accepted a spot in a law enforcement intensive in Washington, hoping to advance his career. She did not expect to work with him again for a while. It surprised her, then, when there was a knock at her door in the afternoon one day, and Woody walked into her office. There was less regret in his face than the last time she had seen him, and he looked more at peace with himself.

"Hey," she said, standing up out of instinct. She caught his quick glance at her seven months pregnant frame and hoped that he didn't think she had done it on purpose to make him feel bad.

"Hey," he answered her, taking in her new physique. Other than her swollen stomach and the slightest hint of the added curves of pregnancy, no one would have ever guessed she was going to have a baby in two months time. She was still trim as ever and dressed in her typical stylish fashion, opting for the trendier maternity clothes. "You look good."

Jordan rolled her eyes a little and her mouth quirked up on one side.

"Thanks," she said sarcastically.

"No, I'm serious, everything looks…" he trailed off, and she raised her eyebrows at him, "generally…good."

Jordan laughed a little at his horrible attempt at a compliment. She was getting used to men treating her like this – trying so hard to give her a positive compliment, and then scaring themselves into the ground when it came out wrong. Woody uncomfortably glanced down at her desk and his eyes landed on the glass rose from Danny. Jordan had decided to keep it on her desk, a constant reminder of him. She watched Woody finger it gently.

"Danny give you this?" he asked casually.

"Yeah," she answered. "He said it reminded him of me."

Woody smiled a little to himself. "I don't think I would ever look at something made of glass and link it to you."

"Brick walls, maybe?" she asked pointedly. Woody looked up and met her gaze. "I'm not made of glass, Woody…but that doesn't mean I don't break from time to time."

"Is that what I missed in you that he saw? Fragility?" he said, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"I don't know what you saw or didn't see," Jordan sighed. "Things just…change, I guess."

"Yeah, they sure do," Woody said quietly.

"So are you back for good?" she asked, trying to steer the conversation towards a lighter topic.

"Yeah," he said. "Washington was a good experience, but it was time to come back."

Jordan nodded, and they fell into a stiff silence. Woody glanced up at her, catching her eye.

"Are you happy, Jordan?" he asked her hesitantly.

"Yes," she told him honestly. He nodded resignedly and took a few steps towards the door.

"I guess I'll see you around then."

"Yeah," she smiled softly. "See you around."

* * *

Despite the jokes made about her lack of maternal instinct, Jordan had always wanted children. But she never knew the amount of love she was capable of having for another human being until the doctor handed her the pink, wailing bundle that was her son. She didn't think she would ever be able to stop crying from the joy she felt.

Propped up in her hospital bed, Danny right next to her with an arm around her shoulder, she proudly showed off her child to her friends. Lily peered at the sleeping baby with the most enamored expression, while Garret looked at Jordan as though he hadn't quite known her before. Bug and Nigel observed happily, though they didn't hold a candle to Lily's enthusiasm.

"So did you decide on a name?" Garret asked them.

"Yeah, we settled on Norbert," Danny deadpanned. Jordan suppressed the laugh that surfaced in her throat and enjoyed the horrified looks on her friends' faces. They quickly tried to recover and hide their shock at the name.

"Well, that's…" Lily stammered.

"Unique," Bug finished.

"Relax, guys, he's kidding," Jordan smiled, adjusting her arm underneath her son's delicate head. The relief in the room was evident. She glanced up at Danny with a proud smile and then looked back down into the sleepy brown eyes of the infant. "I'd like you to meet Collin McCoy."

There was a moment of calm silence as the name sunk into the minds of everyone present. Small smiles of approval and fondness appeared on their faces.

"Collin McCoy," Lily tried the name out, reaching out a finger to carefully stroke the baby's skin. "It's a good fit."

"It is indeed," Danny said, kissing the top of Jordan's head lightly.

Jordan couldn't remember a time in her life when she had been so happily exhausted. She missed her work, but she would have gladly given it up again if she had it to do over. Everyone visited so much during her maternity leave that she hardly felt cut off from that part of her life. Danny hated having to leave her when he was called back in to work, but his attentiveness when he came home in the evening made up for it. It was a toss up which one of them adored their son more.

Not long after Collin's first birthday, Jordan started feeling the telltale nausea that she once again chalked up to the stomach flu. Nine months later, little Alana McCoy, unplanned, though not unexpected, arrived in the world the spitting image of her mother. Danny joked that if they were always going to have children this beautiful, he didn't see them stopping any time soon.

"The process ain't so bad, either," he added, getting a knowing smile from Jordan.

"Wouldn't want it any other way," she replied contentedly.

And while she would only admit it to herself, a few years ago she _had_ seen her life going a different way. A life that did not include Danny McCoy or two point five children and a house in the suburbs. Not belonging to him, anyway. But Jordan had learned that life was never simple. Life sometimes took you in a direction that you did not want to go. But once she stopped fighting the inevitable, she found in Danny what she realized she could not live without– a love she would not have traded for all the second chances in the world.


End file.
